


A Daze of Manic Blue

by lavenderlilypad



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Adventure, Drug Use, Existentialism, Explicit Sexual Content, Illegal Activities, M/M, Partners in Crime, Strangers, Strippers & Strip Clubs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:48:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 62,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29085633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavenderlilypad/pseuds/lavenderlilypad
Summary: “Hey,”he responds, eyes hardening.  “I know we’re talking and all, but you don’t know me that well to just be hurling insults my way.”“Listen, fuckface,” Louis continues, ignoring him as he leans forward again, hands just slightly outreached for him on the surface of the table.  “I wanna find the cheat code to this life shit."Louis meets Harry, Harry meets Louis, neither believe in taking existence seriously, so they fuck up their lives together for fun.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 12
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> did you want a side of ego death to go with your fic?

Louis lets out a huff as he keeps his shirt bunched up in his hands, aggressively rubbing the water-soaked paper towel against it and trying not to think about how his life has gotten to this point.

When that, in fact, doesn’t work, and with every rub of his tensioned fingers with the paper towel he _is_ forced to think about how his life has gotten to this point, he finds himself cursing a “fucking _shit”_ into the air and tossing the paper towel into the trash vehemently.He is then forced to sigh and relent to his reflection in the mirror of this disgusting burger restaurant bathroom, his pale yellow and burgundy collared work shirt stained with chaotic ketchup and mayo right down the middle, all because one of his fellow waiters had to be in a rush getting someone’s food to them, because _some_ people just care about this useless job way too damn much.

“It looks like someone fucking jizzed and puked on me at the same time,” Louis mutters with a shake of his head at his reflection, before taking the few steps over towards the edge of the bathroom where there’s a window slightly pushed open, reminding Louis that there’s a universe _outside_ of this job just waiting for him, a universe that he has to miss out on every second that he’s at this dumb place waiting tables for ten hours a day.

He just pushes the window up a bit and gets his elbows comfortable on the window sill, letting the easy breeze tousle his hair just a bit—well as much as it can while he still has the stupid fucking work cap on.

He drums his fingers against his chin, just sort of taking in the squirrels he can see in the distance, running up a tree and abruptly stopping just to scurry again.Or maybe they’re chasing each other.For fun.Do squirrels actually do things for fun?

Louis would love to be a squirrel.Or any other non-human animal, for that matter.All they need to worry about is eating, and anything else that their hearts desire in between meals.And as Louis’ watching them now, they actually get to _enjoy_ the magnificentsun that’s hitting _just_ right today.They’re actually _enjoying_ their short existence on this earth.Not missing out because they have to work to make money or go to school for thousands of years so they won’t be homeless—they have _none_ of that.

How did Louis get so unlucky?

He pushes himself away from the window with strong arms, knowing that soon he’s probably going to hear voices in his ear at any moment now (it’s his work headset, he’s not crazy), and figuring he should get a move on.

“Louis.”

It comes right on time, just as Louis’ pushing the bathroom door open with his shoulder, now bearing the agitated look on his face that always comes about when he hears Ricky (his manager) and his squeaky, pushy voice.

Louis cuts into their conversation (everyone speaks and hears through the headset—it can make for quite a noisy experience) about him having gotten ran into by Landon (the clumsy waiter who’d soiled him) and people are apparently speaking for him and communicating that Louis had taken a moment to clean up himself.On top of that though, there are murmurs about new tables that he needs to tend to and inquiries about when he’ll be back.

“I fucking hate all of you,” Louis says matter-of-factly while pressing the button on his headset, headed back towards the main dining area.He’s immediately met with disapproving responses from his coworkers, but they’re more monotonous than anything, since they’re all used to Louis by now.And also because they’re way too constantly low on staff to ever fire him.He may be rude and brash often but he actually shows up, damn it.

“You know, if you wanna fuck off for longer, just say you’re addicted to smoking cigarettes,” Niall (his favorite coworker, but also because they’ve been friends since college) says on the way past him, food tray held high over his head as he’s headed toward the kitchen.“’S what I did.”

Louis rotates as they’re passing each other, although he’s still walking backwards on his feet, towards a table of customers who appear as though they might be waiting for a waiter.“You know, I’m _actually_ starting to think lung damage might be better than work.”

He doesn’t hear Niall’s response, but can hear the laughter in his words nonetheless, and right as he’s turning back towards the table of about four he’d been headed towards, he finds that their faces all hold an expression that’s something between disapproval and puzzlement.

Louis doesn’t speak quietly.He just doesn’t care, really.

He takes a look at the menus already at their table, instead just offering them a fake smile and a “I see you guys’ve already gotten a waiter.Please enjoy yourselves”.

And it’s just as he’s stepping away, ready to be given _any_ kind of direction or guidance as to what the next table is that needs to be waited on, that he takes notice of some guy—some really _hurried_ guy in a pale blue collared shirt and a dark gray sweater (that looks a bit like a woman’s sweater), sliding into a two person table and nearly knocking the chair sideways with how much he’d rushed to sit in it, his knuckles now beating against the table.All the while Louis has slowed his steps that were being taken in the guy’s direction, wholeheartedly pursing his lips and tilting his head.

“Oh—a waiter, _great_ ,” the guy says, signaling towards Louis, his eyes brightening, but the rest of his face still in this sort of distracted state.“Can I get a menu please?”

Louis takes the last few steps toward him, on the opposite side of the table from him as he stands behind the empty chair.

“Do you need some weed first?” is what comes out of Louis’ mouth. 

First it appears the guy is about to seriously answer as though he’s on autopilot, but within a millisecond his brain registers the question, and his eyes sort of double take at Louis as though he’s been asked a perplexing game show query.

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, sorry, I was just,” Louis replies, setting a hand against the chair and leaning comfortably.“Was making a jokey-joke about how frantic the energy is that you’ve brought in here today.”

“Oh,” the guy responds, slowly nodding, and the way he moves his hair out of his face and sort of slides it back, weirdly enough, causes Louis to take notice of his long, almost rockstar-like brown curly hair.It contrasts pretty roughly with the rest of his bland, uninspired outfit. “I’m just on my lunch break, don’t wanna get back late and stuff.And I also actually wanna eat.”

“One hour?” Louis asks.

“Thirty minutes.”

“Here’s some advice for you.It’s useless.You can’t eat at a comfortable pace getting lunch someplace else with such little time like that.Trust me, I’ve tried,” Louis responds.“So you’re better off just bringing packed lunches, buddy.Because I’ll tell you now, I’m not about to rush around for you.”

“Then I guess I’ll need someone else,” he’s replying, his eyes already wandering elsewhere, head tilting in search of any other waiter.

Louis’ lips part just a bit, not knowing why he’d sort of not expected that.“I’m just trying to give you advice, dude.”

“I didn’t come for—“ the guy starts, seeming to tense up just a bit as he shakes out his head (and hair) just a bit.“Maybe I could actually get back on time if you would just do what you’re _supposed_ to do and get me a menu instead of—"

He must’ve seen the way Louis’ expression changed, Louis standing up straighter now and less relaxed due to this boy literally being an _unhinged douchebag._ The long haired guy quickly changes up his demeanor, actually bringing a fist up to his mouth as he mutters his next words and blinks down at the table.

“I’m—I’m…sorry.That was rude,” he says.“I know waiters are underpaid, and—and you probably already don’t wanna be on your feet all day as it is—“

He’s interrupted by Louis’ burst of laughter.It’s not loud, obnoxious laughter like the guy’s borderline incredulous facial expression is making it seem (or at least Louis doesn’t think it is).Just slow building, teetering laughter as Louis takes in this absolute weirdo in front of him.

“What?” the guy asks, voice more gentle now, eyes wide in a new way as he blinks at Louis.

“You’re a wuss,” Louis tells him, confidently and with a nod of his head.“See, if you’re gonna be a hard ass, you’ve got to stick to it.Now I just know you simply _try_ to be.”

The guy’s dark brows are knit together in confusion as they hold gaze from different levels of height.“I’m…I don’t try to be—“

“No, you do.You definitely do,” Louis tells him, two hands now leaned on the chair again as he sort of slopes his body into it like a middle school child.“Now _I_ have the advantage of knowing that this sort of hostile, ‘no bullshit’ layer of yours is extremely thin, mister.Like paper, really.”

“Okay, whatever,” the guy replies, shaking his head dismissively and looking down at the table.“I really didn’t come here for evaluations on my character, so could I please just like…get some food.Since clearly a menu is hard to come by.”

“Sure, wimpy.What do you want?”

It’s clear the guy tries to brush off the nickname, his demeanor now much more defeated than it’d been when he’d first ran in here like a gust of wind, now resting his head and his chunk of hair against his fist.It’s probably because now he _knows_ he won’t be back on time.All courtesy of Louis, of course.

“Just the most generic cheeseburger meal you have and a water, please.No onions though.I’m pretty allergic.”

“Coming right up,” Louis tells him, flashing a close-mouthed intentionally phony grin before he pushes himself up from the chair.

The guy picks his head up a bit.“You’re not gonna write it down?”

“I have this thing called a brain, that sometimes I use to store information,” Louis replies, knocking at his skull as his feet are already starting towards the direction of the kitchen, although he keeps his crooked, teasing grin on the boy on his way there.

So Louis ends up serving him, doing his best to keep any and all comments to himself, because he seriously _knows_ he could have a field day pushing this boy’s buttons.He even had to stop himself from not relaying the information to the cooks about leaving out the onions, a tiny part of him just wanting to _see_ what would happen.He’d decided against it though.

The last thing Louis had even said to the boy was that he’d better pay with cash, so that he can just leave it on the table and go when he’s done, since Louis had scheduled his own break to happen in the next five minutes and he didn’t feel like waiting around for one guy.

That is why he is currently on his break— _not_ in the break room of course, but near the back exit of the restaurant by the dumpsters, where there’s an unwanted, withered, old garbage couch that no one’s picked up yet.He often does this on his breaks, just opting to use this time to doodle stupid things, and sometimes ideas onto his little mini sketchpad used for food orders, sat upon the armrest and relishing in the separation from it all.

“What a waste of a Saturday,” is what Niall’s saying next to him, the guy actually reclined upon the length of the couch and sucking on a joint, the smoke formulating in front of his face and into the air. 

This work environment is very lenient, if that hasn’t already been established.

“No, what a waste of _any_ day,” Louis replies, deepening his pencil marks as he sketches out a dead bird that lies against the brick wall in front of him, across this alley.

“I mean, I’d much rather waste a Thursday than a Saturday.”

“That’s what everyone wants you to think. That like,”Louis begins, thinking on it and choosing his words before he continues.“Every day _isn’t_ precious.That majority of them have to be sacrificed.”

There’s a minuscule pause, where there’s just the sound of Louis’ pencil scratching against his notepad as he struggles to get the black feathers just right, and the murmur and revelry inside of the restaurant can be heard if he tries hard enough with his ears.

“Dude, I’m high, and even I don’t know what you’re talking about.”Niall's sentence fades into laughter, Louis simply raising an eyebrow and sort of understanding why it wouldn’t ring a bell to Niall’s simple brain—and then he’s just about tackling the boy on the couch and demanding that he gets a few drags of his joint.

Because of this, he’s just a little spacey and more enthused to be here when he’s walking back into his shift as a waiter, four hours done and six more yet to come.

And he’s just a bit quieted (he was literally laughing at nothing) when he sees that guy.Still sitting at the same table, and sort of just like…doing nothing.Not on his phone, more studying his hands then anything, looking a lot more chilled and at ease than when Louis’d first encountered him.Which was about an hour ago.He’s even taking nonchalant sips out of his water, and it’s clear someone’s already taken care of his empty plates (which Louis will probably be scolded about later).His sweater is also laid behind him on the chair he sits on, his long sleeved collared shirt just a bit loose on him and not clinging to his forearms.

“I honestly thought you were gonna inhale your food in five seconds and jet out,” Louis says, gesturing at the boy as he walks up.

“Oh, I…” the guy begins, weirdly not having noticed Louis’ approach (because Louis believes himself to be a main character everywhere he goes).“I called them and quit.”

This is what actually brings Louis’ eyebrows to raise just a bit, because really, he was _not_ expecting that from Wimpy Boy.His lips part to say something, but he actually doesn’t know what he wants to say. The guy looks like he's still processing the fact that he'd even done it as he blinks down at himself, while seemingly reaching into his pocket for something. His eyes are only coming back to Louis' again when he's sliding what looks like a cash tip across the table, mumbling a "here you go, by the way".

Louis doesn't even pay it any attention as his mind is still stuck on the other thing, finding himself finally asking him a simple "why?"

“I just,” the guy starts, shaking his head down at himself now as he slumps in his seat again.“I’m just finding myself constantly rushing to a job I actually hate—like one where I don’t see a future for myself, despise waking up for every morning—“

“Did you work for Satan, or what?” Louis asks, just to lighten the mood a bit because he’s becoming increasingly aware that he doesn’t know this guy at all, yet he’s just witnessed two different phases of his life in an hour.

The guy is finally meeting eyes with him, having to look up just a bit since he’s still sat while Louis is stood.“No.Just generic data entry at some soul sucking office job.”

Louis nods, his fingertips ghosting the chair across from the boy as he mouths the word _ah._

_“_ I just don’t see the point in that.Like in most things, really.When I think about the grand scheme of things—so much of this shit doesn’t fucking matter.”

It’s said with just a bit of sincerity that’s broken through, as though he’d been trying to be pretty surface level up to this point and couldn’t help the way those words made him feel.He even appears as though he thinks he’s dug too deep as his eyes bear a trickle of innocence behind them and blink back up at Louis.

But Louis’ eyes are only slightly less drooped from how they usually are when he’s high, the boy instead now gripping the chair he’s behind and sliding it out noisily (although he’s too high to realize how loud it is), turning it around so he can sit in the chair backwards (it’s the only way to sit in an uncomfortable restaurant chair).He also slides his headset out of his ears to rest around his neck as soon as he hears even one static murmur of his name.

He is way too invested in this.

“You think a lot of things don’t matter too?” Louis asks, not being able to hold back his wondrous energy right now.

“Well, actually _nothing_ matters, really—like, me talking to you right now, but not in a _bad_ way, like—“ the boy starts, clearly trying to find his words as his eyebrows furrow, although their eye contact is unbreakable now.“I’d rather do the _funner_ things that don’t matter, you know?The things that make me feel alive.”

Louis doesn’t know if he’s too high for this right now or just high enough, but either way, he’s feeling this weird sense of near elation at the fact that it seems that someone’s just waltzed into this restaurant and relayed his own inner thoughts back to him out loud.

“Oh my god, I think the same way,” Louis tells him, the guy’s brows less furrowed now in favor of widening his eyes.“Like, when I even _touch_ on that, people start thinking I’m fucking crazy.”

The guy’s just barely nodding right along with it, and it may not be there, but at the same time it _may_ be there, the very microscopic upward twitch of the right side of his lips.

“Like, I don’t wanna do _this!”_ Louis proclaims, gesturing at the cap on his head and looking around just a bit, not _too_ loud but loud enough to where people are probably just pretending to mind their business nearby.He looks down at his shirt, roughing it up just a bit.“I have fucking mayo cum stains on my shirt, and for _what?”_ The guy’s expression definitely retreats just a bit but Louis ignores it.“ _No one_ , wants to fucking _do_ this!So why do we do it?”He’s gesturing pretty widely around himself, only looking at the guy but very much referring to the entire human race.

The guy’s letting out a heavy sigh before he responds, Louis high enough to hang onto his every word and wait.“It’s the society we’re born into, I guess.Life basically demands you to conform.”

Louis grows a bit deterred and interested as he sets his arms on the table, scooting his chair in just a smidge as they’re still on opposite sides.

“So what are you gonna do now? Since you quit and all?”

The boy pauses, another hand moving through his locks of hair as he contemplates the question, eyes detached and instead focused on Louis’ dirty shirt now.

“I hadn’t thought about it,” he replies hesitantly.“Probably go to grad school.”

Louis scoffs, sitting more comfortably in his seat.“What a bitchful move.”

“ _Hey,”_ he responds, eyes hardening.“I know we’re talking and all, but you don’t know me that well to just be hurling insults my way.”

“Listen, fuckface,” Louis continues, ignoring him as he leans forward again, hands just slightly outreached for him on the surface of the table.“I wanna find the cheat code.”

The guy’s face is returned back to a blank slate, his hands also resting upon the table, just a few inches shy of Louis’.“I…what.What do you—“

“I mean, it would be so cool to turn this life shit into a game,” Louis continues, an almost manic grin forming on his lips, and yep, he might be too high to make sense.“Like, there _has_ to be a way to work around the simulation."

The guy’s face is the same indiscernible expression for quite a while longer, Louis almost not sure if they’re even on the same page anymore, and quietly becoming aware of how he might’ve exposed himself as some closet crazy person.But in reality, Louis doesn’t care.Because he doesn’t care about anything.Certainly not the impression he’s making on a stranger he just met.

“Well, I already quit my job, so there’s a start…” he starts, face breaking into something much more on board, one side of his lips definitely quirking upward, and Louis certain of it this time because an actual dimple forms in his right cheek as he leans back in his chair.“I guess _you’ll_ have to wait ’til you clock out of your shift?”He sort of tips his chin up toward the end of his question, a clearly mocking tone to it as though he poses a challenge or something.And Louis just won’t have that.

Which is why he finds himself springing up from the chair, a grin spreading across his lips as he presses the button on his headset—not even placing the device back over his ears in order to hear any responses. 

“This has been nice and fun and all—genuinely, some of you are good people, but I sincerely, and from the bottom of my heart, fucking _quit!”_ Louis’ yelling, hunched over to throw the words into his headset now and performing quite the show as customers faces start to turn towards him.He makes a show of disentangling himself from the stupid headset that’s wrapped around his neck and attached to his shirt and hurling it at the floor, all to the tune of this stranger boy who’s still sat comfortably in his chair, now laughing it up.

It’s convenient when he spots Niall nearby, just topping off some customers glasses with water, although it looks like he’s really close to overfilling one of them as he stares at Louis from another area of the restaurant. 

Louis stalks right over to him, feeling pumped once he reaches him and slaps a hand on his shoulder, coming in close to speak to him wholeheartedly.

“It has been a _pleasure_ wasting my time at this job with you my friend, but you know where I live.This isn’t the end, alright?” he tells him, giving him two firm pats, all while the boy’s expression has not changed even a little bit from dazed and confused.

Louis can already feel the promise of freedom teasing at his fingertips as he’s stalking away, letting out a shameless howl into the air (and definitely hearing some customers’ verbal complaints).

“I’m gonna go make an ice cream sundae, because _fuck_ everything else!” he announces, already set not to forget to take his cash tip off the guy's table, just now spotting it and remembering it again since it's on the way to the exit of this god forsaken place (and _wow_ a ten dollar bill, how disgustingly benevolent). 

“Can I come?” is what he’s asking, the guy already grabbing his sweater from behind him on the chair, although Louis hasn’t stopped walking as he's already plucked the bill off the table and is pocketing it.

“Do what you want,” is how Louis’ responding, picking a fry off of an unsuspecting customer’s plate on his journey towards the exit door, already feeling like he has the world in his hands as he lets the salty potato crunch between his teeth.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

“Okay, so we _definitely_ need to use some of these,” the guy’s saying as he’s exiting Louis’ kitchen pantry, his arms juggling and nearly dropping a glass jar of strawberry jelly, a bag of marshmallows, a bag of chocolate chips, and a box of raisins.He’s gone for a much more laidback look now, his pale collared shirt undone and loose and untucked to reveal the white tank underneath.Louis on the contrary, still has on his dirty, oversized work shirt, that from here on, he is probably going to use as a table cloth.

“Raisins? The sundaes are supposed to taste _good,_ for god’s sake,” Louis replies, already turning his attention back to the freezer he’s slid open, scouring through everything for the ancient ice cream he has.“Oh yeah—what’s your name, by the way?”

He can hear the boy scoff as he lets everything pile on the counter.“All this time I know yours, and you don’t know mine Louis?”

“It’s because I had on a name-tag, idiot,” Louis replies, finally having scooped the two tubs of ice cream out of the freezer—one vanilla and one strawberry.

“Well, it’s Harry,” the guy responds, organizing the different items he’d just dumped on the counter. 

Louis can’t help the way his face twists as he searches his drawers for the ice cream scooper.“Ugh.You probably went to a fucking private university, didn’t you?Such a fucking bullshit name.”

“What the fuck?” Harry responds, Louis hating the fact that he hears actual offense in his tone as he tucks the found ice cream scooper under his arm, now searching the cabinets for the various syrups and whipped cream.“No, I went to Midland State, thank you very much.”

Louis’ eyebrows do go sky high for a moment as he’s reaching on his toes for the syrups (why the hell does he put them in that cabinet again).“I cannot even begin to express to you how that’s worse.”

“How is that _worse_?I’d _love_ to know what amazingly perfect place you went to for school.”

“Not that it matters, since I dropped out after sophomore year,” Louis replies, letting out a breath as he finally gets the items down, many things scattered across the kitchen counter now.“But I went to Highland.”

_“Highland?_ Fucking _Highland_?” Harry asks, his voice way too high pitched and incredulous. “And you wanna shit on a private university?Don’t they like, kick you out if you don’t keep straight A’s?We always thought Highland was just the superficial, prissy version of our school.”

“There was nothing prissy about our basketball team walking _circles_ around yours every season.”

“Oh, don’t even give me that, the referees rig it for you!” Harry shouts, now fully invested as he gesticulates at the boy.“I’ve seen it with my own _eyes_!”

“You guys always had that _fucking_ excuse!Just try playing better perhaps?”

Yes, this is a stupid argument over a stupid thing, especially since clearly neither of them attend those schools anymore.But hey, their schools were very much solid rivals, and it was a pretty big thing.

“Just give me the strawberry,” Harry rebuttals, stalking over, sliding the tub towards himself, and reaching for the scooper, muttering the words “you fucking _bobcat”_ under his breath, alluding to his school mascot.Louis would respond, he really would, but his phone vibrates in his pocket at that same moment, bringing him to remember that it even exists.

It’s Niall, and Louis honestly doesn’t know what else he’d expected the boy to call him about.

“What?No, I’m not covering your fucking shift tomorrow, Niall,” Louis replies, setting a hand against the counter after the boy had asked the idiotic question, as though the last hour didn’t happen.“I quit, remember?”

“C’mon.We all know you’re bullshitting,” the boy responds on the phone, a hint of amusement being heard in his tone.

“I’m not.Why would you think I am?” Louis asks, his expression truthful and even a bit offended, all with the background noise of Harry spraying way too much whipped cream into his bowl.

“Because it was really random and out of nowhere,” Niall replies.“Did Ricky piss you off again?”

“No, I’m just…I’m just done.”

There’s a lack of words for a moment, one where Louis is convinced that _Niall_ is convinced that this is an actual, real thing that’s happening.That yes, Louis had quit his job on the spot and wholeheartedly meant it.

“My bad, I don’t think I left enough for you,” is what Harry’s heard saying, Louis not even realizing his back had been turned to the boy until he’s facing towards him again, only met with the view of Harry tipping his head back and trying to get as much of the remaining whipped cream as he can into his mouth.

“Is that, um…” comes Niall’s voice, much lower and endlessly hesitant.“Is that the random guy you were sitting with?Does it have something to do with him, or…something.”

“No,” Louis replies with a roll of his eyes, grabbing a spoon off the counter and walking over in order to scoop a significant portion of whipped cream out of Harry’s bowl and into his own (because he’ll be damned if he eats a sundae without whipped cream in his own home).“I don’t even know this guy or care about him.”

“Wow, don’t hold back,” is how Harry’s responding, much more focused on dousing his bowl in caramel syrup.

“Just—“ Louis begins, attempting to beat Niall to whatever else he wants to say.“Call me when you have something to talk about that doesn’t involve that job that has nothing to do with me anymore.”He ends the call before he can hear anything else from the man, setting his phone on the counter and getting right back into the sundae making festivities.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

Louis severely overestimated how much sundae he could actually fit into his body.

But nonetheless, he still finds himself shoving spoonfuls of ice cream and peanuts and strawberry jelly and melted whipped cream into his mouth as his eyes nearly glaze over, because as late evening is upon them, the only thing pretty much lighting up everything right now is Louis’ living room television, which currently plays those alternative adult cartoons that used to weird Louis out as a child. 

He’s actually full.From a fucking ice cream sundae.This is the life he wants to _live_.

“You’re sitting really close to me, you know,” Louis says, not even knowing why he took so long to say it, but figuring it needed to be said since Harry sits next to him, doing the exact same thing in scarfing down his sundae bowl, except his knee is touching Louis’ and Louis just met him today.There’s hardly any space on this small, cheap, good for nothing suede couch, but still.

“Oh, sorry.I’ve always had a problem with that,” Harry replies, only slight laughter to his tone as he scoots over just a bit, licking some ice cream off of his skin that’d been running down his hand.“My ex girlfriend used to absolutely hate it.”

“Your girlfriend used to hate you.For sitting close to her,” Louis asks, furrowing his brows at Harry even though the boy’s gaze is towards the television that casts these faded neon colors on his face.

“She was a cold, tough love kinda girl,” the boy replies with a shrug, bringing his lips around his spoon again.

Louis only blinks at himself, turning his attention back toward the television, although his full stomach of junk food and ice cream is really starting to get to him as his eyelids go heavy.Once he’s had his head rested back on the couch for a considerable amount of time, it’s not really a surprise when his eyes close and he’s taking an impromptu nap.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

Once Louis’ eyes are blinking awake at sometime into the night where everything is absolutely dark except for the television (which is now playing infomercials), he feels like he’d dreamed everything that’d happened before.

But not only because what they were watching has been changed, but also because when he shifts his heavy head to the left, Harry is nowhere to be seen.Just a blank spot where this entire human was once sitting, in all his open shirt glory, and extreme comfortability towards strangers.

He’s only brought to believe it wasn’t a dream when he sees the nearly empty sundae bowl on the small table by the opposite side of the couch.

He’s also brought to believe it wasn’t a dream when he hears noise from his bedroom.And only briefly does he narrow his eyes at himself, and then down at his melted bowl of ice cream mush, wondering if he’d accidentally let some kind of serial criminal into his home.

He doesn’t react urgently though, just setting his bowl aside and heading towards his bedroom, where the door is wide open, and even from a distance he can see that the lamp is turned on.

“There you are,” Louis says, leaning a hand against the doorframe and finding the boy just surveying his room, arms actually folded and hand under his chin as he seems enraptured by a particularly giant magazine cover on the wall of Rihanna with her bare breasts out and a bucket hat on—it’s truly art, in Louis’ opinion, and he doesn’t care who judges him.

“Here I am,” Harry replies, not even really looking at him as he continues to step around, even actually flipping through the old withered comic books that are on top of his dresser.“You have a lot of stuff in your room.A lot of space in here too.”

“Great observation, I guess?” Louis responds, trying not to grow irritated at Harry’s careless rummaging of his comic books, because they _are_ just a bit of a prized possession to Louis and he certainly doesn’t even manhandle them himself.

“Actually, this is just a pretty great apartment,” Harry continues, now looking through the goggles that Louis had kept in a shoebox under his desk (the boy is _really_ getting into everything).He speaks distractedly as he rises back to his feet, squinting as he keeps the goggles to his eyes.“How the fuck did you afford it with that shitty job?”

Louis simply clears his throat just a bit, crossing his arms in front of himself and leaning against the doorframe as he watches the boy do all of his curious wandering.“God works in mysterious ways, is what I always say.”

Harry laughs dryly, more at himself than anything as he puts the goggles down.“I had the solid, perfect nine to five office job, and I have to have _two_ roommates to share a bathroom with, while you have none,” Harry says, rubbing both hands down his face.“That’s not fair at all.”

“God, _two_?” Louis asks, coming up and helping the boy with turning on the lava lamp that he’s toying with on top of the dresser.“After even having to live with one person in college I was over that shit.”He slides the button underneath it in order to turn it on, just now registering how…quiet everything is.Because he _does_ live alone.And the only thing on is the hushed television playing all the way from the living room.Everything’s pretty dark too, and it’s only evident now that the lava lamp is hot pink and glowing enchantingly in front of the both of them, Louis’ bedroom lamp being a rather dim yellow glow on the opposite corner of the room, since he’s always hated bright lights anyway.

“Well, I like them at least—“ Harry begins, before it seems that right on cue, his phone is ringing (and who actually has their sound _on_ and uses _ringtones_ in the modern day), the robotic melody of it irritating Louis in ways he doesn’t understand, all while Harry is stepping back and going “this is one of them right now actually”.

Louis doesn’t even know why, but he hadn’t quite registered that Harry had a life.Or like, a personal life.That he was his own person.So it’s quite strange as Louis’ leaned with his lower back against his desk, toying with his lava lamp and watching the boy speak to whomever it is that’s gotten his attention.

“Oh, shit—sorry, totally forgot,” Harry’s saying, running a stressed hand first down his face and back through his hair, and even from where Louis stands, which is just about four feet shy of him, it sounds like there’s more than one voice, both people tag teaming him on the other line.“I will head to the store right now on the way back—of course.”And then there are more “yeah’s” said into the phone, along with the boy remarking to them that he “would never miss it”.

And once the boy’s off the phone, Louis’ still standing there, waiting patiently with a cordial grin and slightly raised brows, and its weird, the fact that he just met this guy today, yet they’re having a moment where it seems necessary that Harry fill him in on the details of his phone conversation.

“I just totally forgot we’re having one of our Taco Nights tonight, and it was my turn to buy everything,” Harry replies with a sigh, shoving his phone in his back pocket.He slows just a bit, his big eyes unfocused and lost as he looks down toward the lamp Louis’ holding (he’s holding it like he’s jerking it off actually, but he doesn’t think Harry notices).“I actually, erm…forgot I had a life for a moment,” Harry laughs lightly.

“I’m just gonna completely not make fun of you for actually having taco nights with your roommates, and instead just wish you a safe journey,” Louis replies, physically pained that he’s choosing not to engage with that obvious laughing matter.

“As you should, because you really haven’t spared me today,” Harry says, before stalking forth and setting a hand on Louis’ shoulder, his other hand extended out toward him for what seems to be a handshake.“Well Louis, it has been nice engaging with you today, and ruining our lives together.”

“Same here, Harry,” Louis replies, slapping his hand with the boy’s, the both of them now shaking hands much too firmly.

“Maybe we can do it again sometime, but I do know you will most likely be just one of the thousands of faces I meet throughout my life that come and go, and there is no permanence to you,” Harry tells him, his voice bordering on mockingly cordial and almost bringing Louis to a giggle as their handshaking is now lasting comically long. 

“Yes, it’s the ultimate truth of life, my friend,” Louis says, their hands finally detaching as Harry’s retreating, his phone dinging in his pocket two more times.He ignores it, however, because suddenly he’s stepping forth towards Louis dresser, swiping one of the comic books off of it and instantly triggering Louis’ alertness.

“I will take this to remember you,” Harry tells him, finality in his tone as backs away towards the door holding one of his _Captain America_ comic books from a rare series that Louis most definitely will _not_ let him take.

“Oh fuck _no_ you won’t,” is Louis’ response while he’s already catching right up to the boy and reaching for his shirt before he can move any further, not really expecting it when the boy immediately plays a game of “hold the comic book in the air as high as I can because Louis can’t reach it”.

“You fucking _devil_ ,” Louis’ muttering as he’s clawing at the boy’s arms where he now has him pressed against the wall at the edge of the hallway, Harry laughing about how he’s taking it and Louis can’t stop him.

Louis only gets an upper hand when he’s stomping on the boy’s foot and bringing him down to level, and somehow it results in them falling over each other on the ground, and even though Louis is _very_ serious about this comic book not being taken, both he and Harry find themselves pretty tickled, Louis not even being able to keep the chuckling out of his voice as he’s saying “give it back you little shit”.

“No, you don’t understand, I _need_ this,” Harry pleads while Louis’ on top of him and attempting to wrestle it out of his crossed arms.“I’ve been searching for this series for ages!It’s practically heaven sent!”

Somehow, through the work of some unexplained force or something, the comic book is flying out of Harry’s grasp, just a few feet away from where they’re disheveled over the ground, and suddenly they’re in one of those suspenseful moments where now, both of them have a fair shot at reaching for it. 

So it’s just Louis’ luck that Harry, viciously crawling himself over the carpet in the living room like a spider monkey, reaches it first, and is nearly tripping on his way to standing up as he sends a childish tongue over his shoulder in Louis’ direction.Louis can’t really do anything but stay on the ground with defeat and a wide open mouth as Harry’s jetting towards the door without hesitation, the boy only crookedly grinning at him one last time before he leaves out of the front door and tells him “it’s for your memory”.


	2. Chapter 2

“You wanna say that again?”

Louis’ just gotten through chopping up strawberries to put in his sundae (because he feels he should at least _try_ to incorporate healthy ingredients into it or something), so he very much has a knife in his hand right now, which is why Harry shouldn’t be saying things like “I always found _Harry Potter_ so stupid”.

“What?” Harry asks, eyes big and hands up innocently.His hair is definitely more untamed from when Louis’d first met the boy, and the style of it can only be described as resembling Tarzan.He’s also a lot more laidback in a navy blue hoodie and drooping joggers that match in color, and pretty much his entire aura is a lot more relaxed than when they'd initially met.

“ _What_ , is I hate pretentious fucks like you, who try to hate things that are popular,” Louis replies, working on sliding the strawberries into his sundae bowl as Harry scoffs behind him.“It’s one of the biggest book _and_ movie franchises of all _time_ for goodness’ sake!You’d think there’d be a reason behind that.”

“People just like things, because _other_ people like things,” Harry’s saying, walking up and picking a strawberry from Louis’ bowl (even though Louis had _literally_ asked him if he wanted strawberries cut for his own, _separate_ bowl).“I don’t trust the masses.Look what happened with Hitler.”

Louis pauses, just completely stops where he’d been shaking up the whipped cream container (he’d bought a new one) and getting ready to top his bowl off.He shifts his head to stare at Harry, the boy awaiting his gaze with somewhat innocent eyes and neatly curved lips.

“You did _not_ just compare the _Harry Potter_ franchise to Adolf Hitler.”

“What?No, I was just making an _example_ of—“

He doesn’t get to finish that thought (and should never get to finish _any_ thought ever again for that matter) when Louis’ spraying whipped cream right into his face, right upon his nose and staining his eyes and brows and lips and just completely _muting_ that endlessly talking little face of his.The funniest part is how he just stands there and takes it with drooped shoulders. Somehow, they both find themselves laughing, even though Louis is _seriously_ offended at the opinions that the boy has.Laughter is just something he sort of can’t help right now, though.

And he also knows that at the end of it all he’s just going to end up at his usual spot, next to the boy on his living room couch as they let the television glow everything that it touches, rather than light from any actual lamp or bulb.

That night, they decide on switching it up a bit, instead watching movies that have been deemed as “classics” and trying to decide themselves whether they actually are or not, all while stuffing their faces with more junk food ice cream.Surprisingly, they actually come to a few consensuses about the movies—especially _Pulp Fiction,_ where they’re both in agreement that nothing really seemed to happen in the movie and that it’s just confusing for the sake of being confusing.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

“Nope—an absolute no from me on that one,” Louis says, not even stopping the cart by where Harry’s just stood and enthusiastically gestured towards the chocolate covered pretzels.

“Oh come _on_ Louis, you’d be surprised at how much flavor it would add,” Harry’s saying, Louis hearing the boy pick up his steps as he catches up, before the boy’s dumping two jars of chocolate pretzels into their tiny shopping cart, which is _already_ filled with gummy bears, bags of caramel popcorn, actual cherries, more marshmallows, two tubs of ice cream, and Strawberitas just because Louis felt like it.

“I have no room to gamble money on food items,” Louis’ replying as he comes to a stop, waving a tired hand out and looking at the boy exasperatedly.“My pockets aren’t exactly _deep_ , you know.”

Harry’s been wandering towards one of the other shelves a bit, just eyeing a huge tub of animal crackers as he’d been toying with his endless head of hair.He’s turning himself back toward Louis with blinking eyes.

“I mean, I figured we’d just split whatever this comes to right down the middle,” Harry’s telling him with a shrug.“Since that makes the most sense.”

Louis raises an eyebrow, lips parting as he’s looking into the cart incredulously now.“Oh, if _that’s_ the case then I didn’t even choose _half_ the things that are _in_ here, so you’re gonna have to put shit back—“

Harry’s already got a mischievous giggle sprouting from his lips as he’s intercepting Louis in order to push the cart himself, getting his feet right upon the railing of it as it rolls down the aisle and telling the boy that he’ll have to catch him first over his shoulder.

Louis only half attempts to catch up to him, but eventually he only ends up trying to make up for all the things Harry’s chosen by adding in a bunch of things he stumbles upon himself, Louis pretty sure he’s never seen a shopping cart so filled to the brim with useless, filthy junk food.There’s a complete disregard for however much they may end up spending as they’ve both chosen not to acknowledge anything in that realm, since they’re both without jobs and there’s really no good vibes in stressing out about it.

After they’ve emptied the plastic bags into Louis’ car, only fifteen minutes is spent with both of them taking turns squeezing themselves into the shopping cart, the other sending them speeding into the nearby chain of carts in the parking lot just to see if they can withstand the crash.And it’s only fifteen minutes because that’s how long it takes for one of the underpaid teenage workers to scold them, Harry immediately apologizing and Louis telling him to fuck off.

And just as desired with this shopping trip, they have another successful night of ice cream sundaes on a cheap couch with no responsibilities to their name.And then another.And then another, and Louis honestly thinks this is the way to live.Their commentary on the myriad of television shows and movies they put on honestly gets more elaborate and impressive every time.

Harry also sits closer every time, which is honestly something Louis hadn’t noticed, until just one night, the boy’s knee was touching his again.The boy really wasn’t kidding when he’d said he had a problem.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Honestly, with as much of a nuisance as the blond boy has been with the “work” this, and “you're derailing your life” that, Louis didn’t really expect anything good to come out of opening his front door to the boy’s surprise visit.

And then he was proven wrong when there the boy was, waving a bag of weed in the air in front of himself with wiggling brows, instantly letting Louis know that it’s going to be _that_ kind of night.

“You glorious bastard,” Louis tells him, ushering the boy in eagerly.

“Thought we could smoke up, listen to some—“

“Oh, my roommates _love_ to get high.Can I invite them?”

The question comes from Harry, his chin tilted up at them as he probably has an upside down view of them where he’s laid on his back across the living room carpet, looking as though he’d been trying to throw pretzel pieces into his own mouth.

Niall’s feet had come to a hesitant stop, the boy setting the bag on the coffee table and only flitting his eyes toward Louis, then back to the graceless fellow on the floor. 

“Oh.Hi,” Niall’s saying eventually, Louis going over to take the bag and get it open in order to sniff it, just to see if they’re working with some good shit here.“And uh…yeah.You can invite anyone you want, I don’t discriminate.”

“Awesome,” Harry’s replying, sitting up and already preparing to pull his phone out of his hoodie pocket.

“So what’ve you guys been up to?” Niall’s asking, shifting his eyes to Louis beside him as the boy is taking a final whiff of the weed. 

Louis’ grin grows crookedly, Harry’s words muffled and low in the background as he's on the call with his roommates.“Absolutely nothing.That’s the beauty of it all,” Louis’ telling him, letting out a blissful sigh, before he pats the boy on the shoulder and makes his way past him, already intent on interrupting Harry’s phone conversation with sex sounds.“You’re gonna have to send me your dealer later on, alright?”

There’s a subtle reluctance to Niall as he’s just parting his lips, and then closing them and nodding, probably because he doesn’t know how comfortable and casual he’s supposed to be with this absolute stranger here, but Louis just knows he’s thinking about it too much, as humans tend to do with all things.

But he doesn’t care about trying to get his past and current lives to mesh in an orderly fashion. He just wants to get zooted.

Louis doesn’t mind a good small gathering of high people either.Plus, he’s slightly curious to see the two guys who are both Harry’s roommates _and_ quite obviously his best friends.

When they show up, Louis is just a little disappointed, but he honestly doesn’t know what he expected.Maybe elf people?For some reason Harry gives off overgrown elf that was raised in the North Pole vibes.

But no, they’re chill, regular people—well, as regular as they can be with one of them being an overly polite and cautious one who wants to make sure they’re even allowed to smoke inside the apartment and no one will call the cops (despite Louis telling him multiple times that he’s done it before) and one of them being an annoyingly gorgeous guy who side-eyes everything with judgement and keeps talking about spiritual patterns and tarot cards.

It also turned out that Niall _knows_ Liam (the annoyingly wary one), and was actually quite friendly with him back at some youth camp they both volunteered in a few summers ago, the losers, so that makes for a cool ice breaker as they’re gathered upon pillows on Louis’ carpet and around his wooden table, just getting started and passing around a blunt.

“God, you remember that kid who almost drowned?” Niall’s asking at some point, him and Liam having been throwing memories back and forth, Louis trying not to let it harsh his mellow as he’s sucking on a blunt and half paying attention to Zayn and his tarot cards that Harry’s absolutely _fascinated_ by, by the way.This is all while Niall’s weird neo-psychedelia music plays in the background through Louis’ cheap bluetooth speaker.

“Yeah.Fuck,” Liam’s laughing, a lot more loose already than when he’d entered in here.He blinks at himself slowly for a moment.“I have no idea why I’m laughing at that.That wasn’t funny.”

“I _know_ ,” Niall’s responding with more giggles, right before he’s taking a drag out of the blunt Louis’ passed to him.

This somehow gets Louis to laugh too, just because it is funny, the fact that they’re laughing at something that’s not supposed to be funny in the slightest.

He looks over to Harry to see if he’s laughing too, since even now _Zayn_ (shady spiritual one) has slowly begun joining in on the chuckling fun, whatever card shuffling he’d been doing abandoned and becoming a piled mess as he throws his head back.

But Harry’s not laughing at all.

And actually, Louis’ starting to think that maybe the boy hadn’t been fascinated by the tarot cards, and more silent and unmoving than anything.His eyes are still just trained on the mess of them on the wooden table too, Louis moving to wave a hand in front of his face.

“ _Hello_ ,” Louis tells him, Zayn coughing into his fist now in the midst of taking a drag.“Earth to Harry.We’re laughing about some kid drowning.Care to join in?”

It takes a full _five seconds_ of hand waving for the boy to finally shake his head to life—slowly at that, as he forces a grin upon his lips and meets slightly red eyes with Louis.

“Oh yeah, that’s.That’s really…um,” Harry begins, before he’s seemingly surprised by the blunt Zayn is holding out to him, his head jerking with it as he gazes at it.“Funny,” he’s breathing as he takes the blunt.

The boy is tweaking.Totally freaking out.Louis has seen this in every shape and form.And he doesn’t know why it entertains him even further, the boy bringing the blunt to his lips with slightly shaky hands, everyone else way too out of it to notice, some conversation about the different instruments in the current song being discussed by the other boys.

Louis has no idea when the conversation shifts, however.Just suddenly his attention is requested, and he’s feeling a push at his shoulder from where Niall’s sitting next to him on his left.

“Huh?” Louis asks.

Liam’s laughter from where he’s sat across them on the other side of the table puzzles Louis and his mind that’s out of this realm, the boy’s chortles echoing and sort of even layering itself over the music in a surreal way.

“We’ve called your name like, three times,” Liam’s saying.

“He was too busy focusing on his new best friend,” Niall mutters simply, ashing out the blunt in the small ceramic plate at the front of the table.

“Or I was just, like…being fuckin’ high and listening to the music, not tuned into whatever bullcrap you guys are going on about,” Louis counters with lazily blinking eyes, feeling like he’s on top of a cloud right now and very close to just letting his head completely fall back and thud against the couch he’s sat up against.

“Is he always this casually mean?” Liam’s asking.

Before Niall can even answer, most likely about to voice how it’s something to get used to, Louis’ brightening with a slow forming smile.“Why _thank you.”_

He turns his eyes toward Zayn, not having heard from the boy in a while.“And if I could just get the same compliment from Zayn, then I think we’d have a solid, new friend group here.”

Zayn isn’t quick to respond however, since now _he’s_ not paying attention due to being preoccupied with just staring at Harry, which only brings Louis to look at Harry, and find that the boy’s playing with one of the rings on his finger intensely, just rotating it around the probably irritated flesh as though his fingers are restless.

It seems Zayn had been _half_ listening, because he gives something of a reply.

“Do you have like, a back porch, or a place to catch some fresh air, or something?” he’s asking, Louis actually having to take a moment to think about it.

Louis eventually nods, just a bit curious of the boy’s motives, since after all, he _is_ only the friend of Harry, who is _already_ a pretty textbook definition stranger.

“Yeah, just past the kitchen over there,” Louis’ saying, tilting his head in the direction, and Zayn already quietly muttering the careful words “come on” to Harry as he’s preparing to stand up. 

So Louis guesses he wasn’t the only that noticed Harry was kind of freaking out.Which sort of makes sense, since Zayn is his actual _friend_ , and all.

After it takes Harry an outrageous amount of time just to get up, Niall and Liam already having shifted back to talking about youth camp antics, Zayn and Harry are moving towards the kitchen, opening the door to the back balcony area, and letting themselves outside.

Louis’ high enough to be perfectly content just sitting where he is, letting the continued conversation blend harmoniously with the inviting music (that he usually hates) around him, the only lone thought on his mind being that he _really_ needs to know who Niall’s dealer is.

And then Zayn’s stepping back up and preparing to sit, and Louis had even forgotten that the both of them had left.

“He’s just taking a moment,” Zayn says calmly, sitting himself and stacking up his cards neatly as his legs cross underneath him.

“Wasn’t asking,” Louis says cooly, a shake of his head.

Zayn only pauses for a moment in the midst of his stacking, which is a bit of a bummer because it sounded strangely satisfying to Louis’ ears.“Alright,” the boy answers, without even looking at him, before continuing his beautiful sounding shuffling and stacking.

Louis’ eventually pushing himself up to his feet, not knowing if that’s five minutes later or twenty minutes later, but just knowing that he eventually decides that Harry is where the fun is at, so he must bring him back.

Louis’ stepping out onto his balcony, leaving the door slightly ajar behind him, and absolutely _relishing_ the way the nighttime breeze instantly washes over his face. 

Harry simply just has his elbows rested upon the railing where Louis can only see his back, the boy probably gazing down at the shadows of the trees, and listening to the crows, and probably trying to remember how to breathe.

“You’re tripped out right now, aren’t you?” Louis’ asking, stepping up to stand by him, one arm rested on the railing as he faces the boy.

Harry only peeks at him out of the corner of his eye, his lip barely twitching upward before he’s straight faced again.“Yes.”

“You know you didn’t have to smoke if you didn’t want to, right?” Louis asks, pushing at the boy’s arm lightly, which only results in the boy actually _gripping_ the surface of the wooden railing and squeezing his eyes shut for a moment, as though Louis had tried to push him off a cliff. 

Even though this widens Louis’ eyes, he can’t help the way his entertained grin grows in reaction to it.

“Jesus, you are _totally_ freaking out dude,” Louis says in awe.

“Talk about something else,” Harry’s saying, eyes still focused down at the dark nothingness of the trees once he’s opened them again.

Louis raises an eyebrow, only for a second contemplating _not_ doing that, just to see how crazy Harry can go, but then a more…thoughtful part of him takes over as he’s shrugging, stepping back on his heel and looking at the night sky in order to think.

“Okay, um…” Louis begins, pursing his lips.“What’s the most embarrassing sex experience you’ve had?”

There’s a hint of normal brought back to Harry’s face when he’s furrowing his brows, peeking at Louis again and then finally shifting his head to face him.

“’s the first thing I could think of,” Louis tells him with a shrug.

When the boy’s shuffling his feet just a bit, clearly blinking and taking the time to think about it, Louis figures at least it’s _working_ , such an outlandish question getting him to distract himself.

“I haven’t really…” Harry begins, letting out a careful exhale and seemingly trying to keep himself steady minded.“I haven’t really had like… _that_ much sex experience to be able to pinpoint an embarrassing moment.” _Finally_ something of a sincere grin is poking at his lips, Louis barely being able to see the dimple in his left cheek since it’s so dark.“It’d probably be when I came in like three minutes, I guess. I don't know.”

Louis’ letting out genuine laughter, not thinking when he just touches a hysterical hand to the boy’s arm—but thankfully, Harry doesn’t react as sharply as before, Louis not acknowledging it and just accepting it as a victory.

“That’s nothing, my first time I didn’t last thirty seconds,” Louis’ nearly guffawing.

Harry’s lips are actually parting as he meets eyes with Louis, as though he feels for whatever girl Louis had subjected to that.

“Cut me some damn slack okay, I was fifteen,” Louis tells him with a hand up.“Anyway, _my_ most embarrassing moment was when I’d been fucking this girl, like just _giving_ it to her in her bedroom, but like—she lived with her parents, so that was already a _mess_ , but basically, we were home alone, and she was a really loud moaner so there’s that.Apparently a neighbor called in an emergency, thinking she was being harmed, or something, and her door was busted down with the fire department and her dad behind it.”

Louis doesn’t really think much of the story at this point since he’s told it about three times by now, but it sort of makes sense how Harry’s sort of stunned for a moment, Louis thinking back to how much of a heart pumper that was, having all of his business out in front of about six people at once.

“Her dad chased me out with a BB gun, so,” Louis continues casually, toying with his own hair.

For whatever reason, _this_ is what gets Harry to go from just having surprised, open lips, to full on laughing, bordering on wheezing with it as Louis begins to add details of how he’d been afraid to even step or drive through that neighborhood again, just fearing that the girl’s dad would fulfill his promise of putting a hole in his ass cheek.

“Oh my _god_ ,” Harry’s laughing, and yes, the story is funny, but Louis also knows that the weed is a lot of the reason why the boy’s smile is nearly cracking his face in half right now as he holds his stomach, but it’s all good as long as Harry doesn’t once again become aware of that.

“Well you win,” Harry’s saying as he’s wiping a single tear away from his eye, Louis just having watched this whole segment fondly.“I honestly would’ve wanted to stop existing after that.”

“Ah, I just knew there was lots more sex to be had,” Louis says nonchalantly, the both of them grinning easily and Harry more faced towards Louis with only one elbow on the railing.“No reason to let one little instance get me down.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Harry agrees, nodding his head and only looking back forth at the nighttime shadows briefly.“So, um…” he begins, volume coming back down, drumming his knuckles against the wooden surface and Louis just watching it observantly.“You’re like…you’re pretty active in that field.”

Louis’ first plan of response to such a ridiculous question is to tip his chin up obnoxiously and speak in a mockingly professional manner.“Why yes, Harry Styles, I am exceptionally _exquisite_ in the field of intercourse.It’s my favorite pastime,” Louis tells him, Harry already blowing small chuckles into the air.Louis reaches out and shoves his shoulder, just to tease.“What, are you a prude or something?”

“No,” Harry replies, just a bit on the defensive side.“I just wanted to know.Just…fleshing out your personality traits.Because I don’t really know you, remember?”

“No, you’re totally a prude.”

“No, I’m _not_.What is there not to love about sex?Sex is awesome.”

“Oh really, Ron Jeremy?” Louis asks, nudging the boy’s arm with his elbow, having entirely too much fun with this.“When’s the last time you had sex then?”

“Like,” Harry begins, shoulders rising as though he has an easy answer to it.“Six months ago, I think.”

“ _Six months_?” Louis asks, his high state exaggerating his shock as his eyebrows raise, even though that _is_ pretty wild.“How do you even manage to think straight?”

“Somehow, Louis,” Harry replies with a sarcastic sigh.“Somehow, I manage.”

“Absolutely barbaric,” Louis counters with a shake of his head, really just to poke him at this point, and to ensure that the boy is far away from the near panic attack he’d been about to fall into just a few minutes ago.

There’s a moment where the amusement gently dies down between them, Louis looking down at his feet as he kicks them and decides that he needs to throw these shoes out, and Harry’s looking forth at the tall trees some more, probably thinking that he’s gone and befriended the most obnoxious person on Earth.

“I think I’m fine to go in now,” Harry says, his voice soft.

“Alright, come on then,” Louis urges him, already speaking to the boy over his shoulder as he’s headed to reach for the door and join the rest of them.


	3. Chapter 3

Louis’ ice cream has melted way too much before he’s even gotten a chance to scarf down a good portion of it.This sundae business is really starting to become a race against the clock more than anything.

This is why he’s given up and simply has his head slumped back and rested against the couch as he blinks up at the ceiling, already knowing Harry’s doing the same next to him as the television lights the blackened living room with infomercials and forces Louis to think.

“I’m broke,” Louis declares, this probably being the first thing said between them in about an hour.

“Broke how,” Harry responds, although he doesn’t seem to move at all.

“Like, forty-six dollars left to my name broke,” Louis answers easily.

At this, he _can_ sense the way Harry picks his head up, probably setting those annoying, concerned eyes on Louis’ head that’s melted into the cushion.“What?”

“Forty-six dollars.”

“Louis, how in the world could you let yourself get to that point?” Harry’s asking, Louis already regretting having opened his mouth due to how stern the boy is getting.“No savings?Stashes? _Anything_? Even _I_ have a safety net of savings.”

All Louis does is release a breath and close his eyes briefly, thinking that maybe if he just dreams about it hard enough, the boy will simply float away.He’s only fun when he’s reckless and uncaring and impulsive like Louis.They have to be in it together for this to work.

Regardless, however, the boy can be a bit…reasonable sometimes.Sometimes he says smart things.

“Remember that thing you said,” Louis starts, eyes still closed.“About life demanding you to conform?”

“Yeah,” Harry responds, a bit sidetracked.

Louis finally pulls his eyelids open, picking his head up and setting his eyes on the boy who’s (close) next to him.

“I think it’s time, Harold,” Louis declares sadly.

Louis can already hear the whine before it’s coming out of Harry’s mouth, the boy setting an elbow along the back of the couch and leaning into it with the side of his head.

“ _No_ , because if _you_ give back in, then _I’ll_ give back in, and,” Harry begins, sighing.“And I’ve really been enjoying this useless existence of ice cream and television.”

Louis scoffs with a roll of his eyes.“So _big_ and _bad_ Harry can’t do this life-off-the-grid thing all on his own?” Louis asks, Harry narrowing his eyes at him.“He needs _me_ to do it with him?Not very macho of you.”

Harry moves to sit up just a bit to defend himself, his knee bumping Louis’.“No, I _can_ , it’s just, like—on my _own_ , I’m just some crazy guy who looks like I’m ruining my life.My roommates are already trying to sway me back into”—he holds up air quotes—“ _participating in society_ again, and with you tapping out, they’ll have _great_ reasons now.”Although he’d already been leaning towards the desperate side, he’s pretty shameless with it when he’s reaching out and holding Louis on either side of his arms, shaking him madly.“ _Please_ , don’t make me go back to the office life.I can’t do it.”

“ _Please_ ,” Louis starts, moving his arms to grip the boy on his biceps right back as he shakes him with each word.“ _Stop, shaking, me._ I can _hear_ you.”

“No, because I want to _make, sure, you, get, it_ ,” Harry’s saying, Louis pretty sure his brain is bumping around in his skull now, even though they’re both on the verge of breaking into idiotic laughter.

Louis maneuvers his arms in order to take hold of Harry’s wrists, forcefully holding them down between themselves. “Okay, we don’t _have_ to go back to our old ways, though,” Louis tells him, getting Harry to understand and simmer down as the boy only nods once.“But we _do_ have to make money.To like, survive, remember?”

“Oh yeah.That,” Harry’s saying solemnly, still having his wrists pinned down below him.A sudden thought takes over him for a moment as he blinks and sets questioning eyes on Louis.“How exactly are you even affording this apartment if you only have forty-six dollars?”

“God works mysteriously.”

“Not _that_ mysteriously.”

There’s a subtle staring match for a few seconds, Louis still holding back the boy’s arms from shaking him like mad, and Harry prying and inquisitive about things that are none of his beeswax.

Louis’ eventually releasing the boy with a sigh, however, brushing a hand through his hair and mentally telling himself that the boy is trustworthy.Somewhat.

“I am about to tell you something…” Louis begins, Harry listening and tucking one of his legs underneath himself, body more properly facing Louis as the television only faintly lights up half of his face.“…that you can’t tell _anyone._ ”

“…what?” Harry asks, cautious.

Louis only stares at him for a moment, _really_ trying to decide if the boy is _actually_ trustworthy.And also making himself mentally aware of the consequences he’ll probably face if this gets out, considering the boy _isn’t_ trustworthy.

“What, are you a wanted criminal, or something—“

“I stole this apartment from a dead guy.”

Just like that, Harry’s curved, talking mouth is zipped shut, although his eyes are wide open as Louis tries not to wince at the cat being out of the bag.Literally _no one else_ knows this, not even Niall.

Louis puts up careful hands, just in case Harry’s mind had been spiraling with thinking Louis’ a murderer.“But it’s _not_ as creepy as it sounds, see,” Louis begins, clearing his throat in preparation to explain.“This old man that lived here just like, died, and like—his family cleared everything out _long_ before I even got here, but me, being the guy looking for a free opportunity any place I can, I noticed that the place was vacant and always left open, so I’d snatched it up.Just to see how long I could crash here before getting busted.”

More silence.To the point where Louis actually wants to shake _him,_ because fucking _say_ something.

“Louis,” Harry starts, his voice almost whispered.“ _Someone’s_ paying for it.Probably the _dead guy_.”

And yes, Louis had thought of this as a possibility, even though he doesn’t let it show as he widens his eyes at Harry.“You think?No one can know that for sure. _I_ don’t know that—if that’s happening, I have _no way_ of knowing that.I’m just the guy who lives here and has never been asked for rent.”He’s more just trying to get a point across to Harry, letting him know that it’s the story they’re going to go by in case shit ever _does_ end up hitting the fan.

“You do know you can go to jail for this, right?”

“Yeah no _shit_ , idiot,” Louis tells him sharply.“This is why I’ve never told anyone—and you’re an _accomplice_ now that you know it, by the way.Before you even _think_ about ratting me out.”

Harry puts both hands up, his expression bordering on offended as Louis tries to keep from biting his own nails.“I’m not _ratting you out_.”

“You’d better not.”

“I’m _not_ ,” Harry continues, lowering his hands as it seems to sink in, Louis watching him closely.“It’s…understandable.Sometimes we slip up and end up living in a dead guy’s apartment, it’s no biggie.Nobody’s perfect, and all that.”

“Yeah, even though _I’m_ the one with the dead guy apartment and the college dropout status while you’re the one who went to fucking Midland State and worked a sunshine white collar job,” Louis says, a good amount of sass to his tone.“As if you’re _not_ Mr. Perfect.”

Harry’s lips actually part, Louis only faintly aware of the snack maker that’s been being advertised on the television for the past twenty minutes.“I’m _far_ from perfect, okay.”

“Then you better start telling me what your dead guy apartment equivalent is.Pretty quickly, sir.”

“I…” Harry begins, twirling a finger around his own hair as he quickly thinks about it, as though under pressure.“I don’t have one like _that_ , but…I.”

Louis waits patiently (well, his leg _is_ bouncing with it), watching as Harry’s on the verge of letting the boy in on whatever it is that makes him imperfect.

“I _do_ have something of an anger problem,” Harry finally finishes, and it definitely appears like saying it was quite difficult as he doesn’t even meet eyes with Louis.

“Who doesn’t?”

“No, I…” Harry begins, his laugh dry as he looks down at his lap.“I, um…I have a _really_ bad anger problem.I can control it now so you can’t really tell, but I’ve, uh…”

Louis’ definitely hanging on the edge of his seat now, torn between not even believing the boy, and absolutely _needing_ to hear more of this, since it’s quite shocking.

“A while back, my sister had been dating this guy, and found out he’d been two timing her with another girl—which upset me, naturally, but I didn’t _seek_ him out violently or anything,” Harry starts, eyes a tad bit zoned out.“But then at this Christmas party thrown by a mutual friend, he’d just barely—like by a _hair_ , touched my shoulder in passing and I absolutely _lost_ it.Remember blacking out, actually.All I knew for sure was that he’d left in an ambulance, and based on what I heard from other people, his face was swollen and bruised to the point where he looked like a different person.”

If it weren’t for the television that continues to cut into their dramatic pauses, Louis would be able to hear a pin drop right now with how silent it grows between them, Harry’s finger twirling around one of his curls a bit too many times now as his eyes continue to glaze over.

“So yeah…” Harry says, seemingly blinking back to life as he looks to Louis again and shrugs.“He got stitches, the sis begged him not to press charges, and I went to therapy, so it’s manageable now, but.”He gestures at himself.“Not perfect.”

Louis opens his mouth long before saying anything, really just trying to contain his slight shock, and not make it _too_ known, just how much that throws him off.Because it’s just so _unexpected_ of Harry.Wild.

“Where _were_ you when I regularly got my ass handed to me by those idiot jocks in high school?” Louis asks, Harry tiredly rolling his eyes and brushing his fingers through his hair.Louis only nudges him in the knee with his knuckle and quietly lets the boy know he’s joking, just for good measure.Since this is clearly something that was a bit hard for him to say.

They fall into a more understanding silence after that, Louis not quite knowing where to go from here.Like, yeah, now Harry knows that Louis lives in a stolen apartment, and Louis knows that Harry can bloody someone’s face without remorse, but how exactly is this going to get them money?Because Louis swears that had been the initial dilemma here.

“Cosmic intervention,” Harry’s suddenly saying, Louis picking his head up in order to look towards the boy, only to find that Harry’s eyes are focused ahead at the blinding television, almost enamored with whatever’s on it.

So Louis turns to look at the television too, only to find a commercial for some upcoming baseball game where there are apparently still tickets left to be sold, and giveaways to be had, and volunteers to be needed. 

“I have an idea,” Harry’s continuing, not even pulling his eyes away from the screen as his lips start to curve upward on one side.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

“God, it’s not my fault you guys’ front door is so shitty,” Louis’ muttering to Harry right after he’s had to jam his shoulder into the door in order to get it to open itself.

“ _Ramming_ yourself into it is only gonna make it worse—“

“Hey, _hey_.”

Since the voice comes from neither Louis nor Harry, Louis’ only faintly blinking towards it as he’d been walking backwards, just about to ask Harry how to get to his bedroom.

Zayn’s tuft of hair is the only thing peeking over the living room couch, before the boy is tilting his head up in order to have better sight of them.

“I’m trying to _study_ here.Do you have no etiquette when it comes to entering stranger’s homes?” Zayn asks.

“You know Zayn, I think that’s why bedrooms were invented,” Louis’ saying, Harry getting right past him in order to head towards the stairs to lead the way to his bedroom.“To give you your own _personal_ space to do whatever it is your heart desires without interruption.”

“A very snippy one you’ve got there, Harry.”

“I learn to adapt to it,” is the last thing Harry’s saying before they’re disappearing up the stairs, venturing towards Harry’s bedroom which is apparently the only thing up there.

Even though Louis had expected it, he still _does_ take a moment to simply blink at the boy’s room, and how neat and tidy it is, with everything in its place.Harry hadn’t wasted any time introducing his room or making a grand announcement of it, because they _are_ on sensitive time right now, so he’d gone right to his closet in order to drag out one of the huge bins, and now he’s rummaging through it as Louis’ taking in his nicely decorated room that’s full of violets and dark blues, and rugs, and a tall elegant lamp, no splash of _life_ or _customization_ anywhere.

“I could’ve sworn they were in here,” Harry’s muttering at some point, his searching proving itself more and more futile.

“Yeah right,” Louis scoffs, stepping up to the boy with crossed arms and finally resting his back against the nearby wall.“Just admit you never played baseball.I knew that was too cool to be true.”

“No, I _did_ —and they _have_ to be in this apartment, I know it,” Harry’s saying with a stressful hand to his hair, forgoing the bin and just moving to leave his room, Louis blindly following suit with arms still crossed over his chest.

With a hand to the doorknob once they’ve gotten down the stairs and turned into one of the hallways, Harry pops his head into another room, seeming to have startled Liam who was playing some video game on his giant television.

“Do you have any idea where my old baseball jerseys are?” Harry’s asking, Louis just silently beside him and trying to take in as much as he can see without fully being in the bedroom.It looks like Liam’s playing freaking _Sims 3_ as he’s carefully in the midst of building a house on there _,_ which is quite a unique selection of game.

“Yeah, um…” Liam begins, scratching at his chin as he thinks about it.Then something else crosses his mind as he shakes his head out, looking at the two of them with a game controller limp in his lap.“You guys about to play, or something?”

“No, we just—“

“Do you guys like…” Liam starts, brows furrowing innocently, words carefully treading.“Like each other, or something?”

Harry’s rubbing a hand down his face, since Liam and his human tendency of curiosity is wasting their time, so Louis takes it into his own hands as he places a hand to Harry’s chest and shoves him back as he steps forth.

“Look, dickhead.We are _time sensitive_ right now and he asked you a simple question, which you have chosen to answer with another more stupid question.Either you know where the fucking jerseys are, or you _don’t_.We are on the verge of _homelessness and starvation!_ Move your _ass_ ,” Louis tells him sternly, nearly heaving by the end of his words, the boy having gone from reluctant and curious to quieted and nodding by the end of it.

“Okay, um sorry—I think I remember it being in the storage closet in the hallway,” Liam says finally, scratching at his scalp fiercely and clearly out of his element with Louis’ straight forward style.“Because you’d tossed it in there after trying to prove—“

“After trying to prove to _Keston_ that I played, _now_ I remember,” Harry’s apparently remembering as he snaps, Louis looking behind him at the boy with a smirk and a twinkle in his eye that he can’t contain.

“I guess you just keep having to prove it to people, don’t you?” Louis asks, barely holding in laughter.

“Shut up,” Harry groans, already turning around and headed toward this storage closet of theirs.

Louis only turns toward Liam one last time on the way out, offering him a “thank you for your cooperation” before he closes the door behind himself.

The jerseys actually _do_ end up being in the hallway storage closet, purple in color and ambiguous in design and lettering, making it _perfect_ for the baseball game that they’re going to sneak into.Of course, they still could’ve done it without the jerseys, but this makes them look more credible.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

“Just be natural, alright?” Louis’ saying, getting the vendor tray properly on, the straps over his shoulders as he positions the thing out in front of himself, right before Harry’s working in order to stuff it with bags of chips, and warm cans of sodas, and various forms of candy out of a grocery bag from when they’d went shopping for all this stuff just a few minutes ago.

“Literally what am I doing that’s _not_ natural,” Harry’s replying, before moving to get the tray upon himself after he’s filled Louis’ up.

“I dunno—you probably just reek of nerves,” Louis replies, Harry choosing not to engage with him as he just proceeds to stuff his tray with the additional snack food items himself, just a few people every now and then passing by them with nosy eyes while they move towards the entrance corridors to the stadium.

The plan is, they’ll just be baseball vendors today.And sell everything for _slightly_ ridiculous prices, because they know in ninety degree heat _someone_ will be willing to pay, and hopefully by the end of today, Louis can have more than forty-six dollars to his name.In fact, if they sell absolutely everything they have right now with the prices they’d agreed upon, they should make at _least_ six hundred dollars today.That’s exactly what’s got Louis so prepared and determined as they stand here in the middle area between already having entered the gates and bought tickets (a necessary cost), and actually stepping out into the sun and the stands surrounding the baseball field.

“Okay, you ready for this Harold?” Louis asks once they’ve gotten themselves together and are properly prepared, their trays almost overflowing with everything they’ve gotten in them.When Harry’s only nodding and shaking out his hands by his sides, Louis already knows the boy is probably fighting against a nervous breakdown, so he continues some words of alleviation.“No one’s ever said this isn’t _allowed_ anyway.”

“Yeah, I’m sure we’re not the first people to have tried this,” Harry responds, more trying to assure himself than Louis.

Louis leans forth as much as he can with all that’s between them, slapping hands on either of the boy’s shoulders and trying to get the determined words into his ears.“Life is a game. We’re playing it any way we want right now.You got that?”

Harry only nods, Louis giving him a soft slap to the cheek before he’s moving past him, preparing to enter through the corridor and into the broad daylight of the stands where there are dozens and _dozens_ of awaiting, sweaty people.

Louis almost _immediately_ gets flagged down for a soda before he can even properly cup a hand over his mouth and announce what he’s selling.

This is what causes him to lose Harry pretty quickly, since they’d already planned that they’d spread over the stands and try to scope the area out for as many potential customers as they can, and it’s actually really convenient that it goes smoothly for a while.There are a few glances their way from what looks like security, and even the _one_ other _real_ vendor that’s working amongst the stands too with hotdog sandwiches, but Louis figures that with their correctly colored jerseys, and with their absolute confidence in selling snacks like they have a permit, that no one wants to question them.

Everyone’s also so involved in the game that’s going on (Louis’ never really understood the sport), most of everyone standing and chaotic and hollering every now and then when a home run is happening or something, that Louis sort of blends in with everything as he’s surveying the stands and walking his way up and down them, asking people if they’d like anything refreshing or tasty.

Louis keeps it simple by not entertaining any complaints about prices, simply letting people know that life isn’t fair before moving onto other people who will _actually_ pay five dollars for a bag of nacho chips that’s fifty percent air.People who are careless with their money clearly make the world go round.

_Harry_ , however, appears to be quite the opposite, which Louis only becomes aware of because he takes notice of the boy having been talking to _one_ person in the stands for about five minutes now.

Louis subtly makes his way over, having to push through standing sports fans a bit and coming within earshot just enough to hear “ _two dollars_ , take it or leave it”.

“Sir, I’m not _selling_ it for two dollars,” is what Harry’s saying back, right as Louis is walking up with a curious eyebrow as to what’s going on.

“Don’t _sir_ me.You’re _stealing_ from people!”

“ _Sir_ , if you’re not gonna buy it, then let me just _move on_ to other people who _will_ —“

“I’ll _report_ _you_ for jacking up prices.”

“I’ll report _you_ for being an annoying piece of shit, how about that?”

Louis’ already worked his way up, taking a hold of the boy by the fabric of the shirt and already conscious of the few eyes that are turning their way just to see what the commotion is about.Luckily, this hotheaded guy in the stands seems to be alone, just solo and angry at candy prices. A truly miserable existence.

“Harry, it’s fine. Don’t attract attention to us,” Louis’ saying lowly to him as he already leads the way to leave.

“A couple of fucking delinquents.”

Louis had been just a step away from wiping his hands clean of the situation, but he can’t help his natural reaction to being challenged in any fashion.It’s something that brings the fire out of Louis no matter the situation, circumstance, or setting.

“Wanna say that again?” Louis’ asking, coming right back down the step and up to the man.

“Louis—“

“You’re fucking _delinquents_ , scamming people out of their good money,” the guy’s continuing, rising right up to meet level with Louis and actually _escalating_ this, to Louis’ very surprise.

“And how exactly is it _my_ fault that _your_ poor life choices have led you to end up crying tears over five dollar junk food?It’s not _scamming_ , it’s just appealing to the more elite people in life,” Louis tells him matter-of-factly, ears turned off to the way the guy continues to shoot brash words right back at him.

“But you know what?" Louis continues, already reaching into his own tray for one of the bags of chips and getting it open with one rip and a maniacal grin.  "We still love to help the needy." Harry seems to be the first one who suspects where this is going, because he’s already behind Louis and attempting to hold his arm back and whisk him away as Louis is trying to get the guy showered with chips, which only results in additional people nearby being hit with stray chips, which results in increased whining, and cursing, the initial guy threatening a restraining order on the both of them as Harry is still working to pull Louis away.

“You’d better apologize to my daughter right _now_ ,” some middle aged woman is piping up, now revved up to get into Louis’ face too, Harry just apologizing over Louis’ exclamations that her daughter shouldn’t have been in the way of his anger.

Once they’re a good distance away from the commotion they’ve caused, further up the stands, Louis is being spun around by both of Harry’s vicious hands to his arms.

“Are you _trying_ to ruin this for us?” Harry asks sternly, immediately being met with a sharp hand to his chest by Louis.

“I should be asking _you_ that shit, since clearly you’re not abiding by what we _discussed_ ,” Louis gestures between them.“Which is not to bother with people who don’t wanna pay the price.”

“Sorry that I’m not just gonna _stand there_ and _take it_ when—“

“They’re right over _there_!”

It seems both his and Harry’s heads are flipping in the direction of the agitating male voice at the same time, immediately being met with the sight of two tall guys approaching in security uniforms, being led right to where he and Harry are standing as Angry Candy Man points at them.

“Oh fuck—“

“Go—just _go_ ,” Louis mutters without even thinking, leading the way in shoving past Harry’s shoulder and maneuvering through the animated bodies so harshly and frantically that his whole tray of snacks and candy and cakes and sodas just completely collides with some unsuspecting stranger, everything going up in the air and making quite a mess.Louis doesn’t dwell on it however, just quickly doing away with the entire tray off and over his head as he’s hearing “you two, stop _now_ ”.

Louis only glances over his shoulder as he’s working toward a full blown sprint since he’s in a more clear area of the stands, and the stupid boy behind him is actually going as fast as he can _while_ making sure he picks up whatever spills out of his tray, Louis having to raise his voice to holler at him as he skips his feet backwards.

“ _Leave it_ , fucking _leave it, idiot!”_ Louis’ shouting, Harry immediately doing away with it over his head, before Louis adds upon further thought—“Wait—the _Oreos!_ Save those if you can!”

He only catches a glimpse of Harry scooping Oreos by the tiny packs into his hands before he’s nearly falling over his own feet in order to start on the full dash across the baseball stands and in between unsuspecting sports fans, and only distantly does Louis still hear the muffled sounds of the both of them being told to stop their running and that they’ll never be welcome in this stadium again.

Louis’ running so fast he’s sure his heart wants to climb right out of his chest right now, but all he knows is that he has to reach that opening he sees further down, leave right out of this stadium, and inevitably the security guards (who were already not very built to begin with) will deem this as something that’s not that important.

And he’s exactly right once his feet are coming to a slow, gradual stop once he’s out in the fresh, non-baseball air again, having endured several incredulous, almost panicked eyes that flashed his way in the “middle area” behind the stadium where he’d been dashing for his life.Now he just stumbles into a position of holding his hands upon his knees, heaving, and definitely deciding that he should probably start working out more as he finds himself in the parking lot, no more warning shouts being heard within earshot.

“Fuck,” comes Harry’s voice, drenched in his heavy breaths as Louis simply peers at him even in his low position.The boy has his eyes closed and pained, both of his wrists up to his forehead (large hands clutching about five small bags of Oreos, thank god) as he seems to be getting himself together.“Haven’t run like that in ages.”

Louis’ still breathing like his life depends on it as he stays slumped over, half thinking his body may even betray him and hurl something up.

And then Harry’s breaths seems to resemble something more of heavy laughter, Louis peering up at him again and a millisecond from scolding him for even _daring_ to chuckle, since this is all his fault.

But then Louis just finds himself falling into a bit of a chortle too.He thinks it might be his body’s desperation to be given a break.

“You fucking _dumbass_ ,” Louis’ saying sharply, even through laughter as he rises to his feet and pushes the boy wholeheartedly, resulting in Harry pushing him back and claiming it wasn’t his fault through smiling lips, resulting in Louis surging forward and just absolutely getting the boy hung right into the air and over his shoulder, Harry roughing up his hair and demanding to be put down, and Louis proclaiming that he’s going to find a garbage chute to throw him in.

In such a short moment, it sort of turns into them, just having gotten their asses kicked with the way they’d had to run for their lives, now in outrageously joking moods, not able to stop laughing and shoving at each other, and eventually, somehow even though Louis doesn’t remember the events that led up to it, they’re engaging in a foot race against each other, right outside of the stadium where only a small litter of people reside near the parking lot.Louis thinks it might’ve started with the both of them trying to decide who was more winded from the run from security. 

And Harry _only_ wins the race to the cones in the parking lot because Louis had exerted all of his energy to the security run, which is obvious due to how far ahead he was.Of _course_ Harry still had some more in him after that pathetic display of falling far behind.

Yeah, they’ve probably only made half of what they were supposed to make.And yeah, this _was_ something they’d kind of planned to become a normal thing if it had gone successfully today.And yeah, they’re flat out broke with absolutely no means of certain income, but none of that seems to matter anymore pretty quickly as they get lost in the ridiculousness of it all.

Eventually they end up toppled over in some nearby grass, Louis well aware that there’s probably a few people who have witnessed them this entire time, thinking they’re a duo of insane boys who probably need to go home already.Louis doesn’t care though.He’s having a blast.

“You know, I think we made a good amount of money,” Harry comments, the both of them tired and cooling down, Louis on his back and laid across the dirty grass and Harry sat up with his palms in the dirt, the empty little bags of Oreos resting upon the ground between them.“I mean, especially _you,_ considering you don’t even have to pay rent.”

Louis tilts his head, trying to figure out what the cloud he’s looking at reminds him of.“I guess that does make sense.This was sorta fun, though.”

Harry’s turning widened, pleased eyes toward Louis, even though Louis doesn’t return the gaze as he’s more enraptured by the cotton candy clouds.“I _know_ , right?Like, the way we actually _pulled it off_ for a while there.”

“And the running away was a highlight too, don’t forget that,” Louis adds.

“Oh, of course,” Harry agrees with a scoff.“We deserve an award.”

Louis hums in agreement, more than ready to call it a day and just head back to his apartment in order to curl into his bed for the rest of time. The signature organ theme music plays faintly from the stadium, all of the buzz of the game still happening not far behind them.

“I know, we…we’ve sort of made a whole _point_ of bashing the system and pressure to conform and all that,” Louis begins thoughtfully.“But I dunno…this was kinda fun, so like.Maybe we can keep finding ways to make making money fun?”

He can see Harry nodding without fully looking at him, the boy looking towards the way the sun is setting, stray curls of his just gently blowing almost messily that he isn’t aware of.“I’m completely on board with that.”

Louis nods to himself once, biting his cheek for a moment.“Well—we’ll try to make it fun, of course, but like…eventually we’ll just realize again that it isn’t optional, which will start to suck the fun out of it.”

Harry’s turning his chin over his shoulder in order to grant Louis his eyes again, this time Louis looking back at him with one eyebrow raised.

“We’ll do it ’til the fun runs out?” Harry’s asking, crookedly curved lips growing towards the end of his question.

“Hell _yes_.”


	4. Chapter 4

"You know, I was sort of hoping the last time I _ever_ would step on a college campus would be when I graduated,” Harry mutters, keeping up alongside Louis as they walk by some ridiculously huge fountain, which must be a new addition, since Louis definitely doesn’t remember it from his time here.“Why did we have to meet this guy _here_ , again?”

Louis turns to walk backwards on his feet as he leads the way, all the college kids on their bikes and with their portable speakers and their skateboards and their posters and their scooters and their backpacks, moving all around them as he and Harry saunter through everything with the clothes they’d worn to sleep last night.

“Because I’d lost his number, and he practically _lives_ in the drama department, so I know this is where I can find him,” Louis tells him, pretty certain he’s said this already.

Harry crosses his arms, his t-shirt wrinkled and his sweatpants dragging against the ground.“This job better be good if it means I had to walk through this awful school.”

“Oh, it’s _awesome_ ,” Louis assures him, quirking his eyebrows up before turning around in order to get them to veer off towards the pathway to the theatre building, Louis quite missing the scenery this campus always had to offer.

Once Louis’ skipping up to the double door back entrance of the building, faking as though he’s holding it open for Harry and then letting himself in first to the roll of the boy’s eyes, they’re inside the darkened theatre hallway, quite a distance away from the stage area, where drama club members and other theatrical weirdos are seeming to get ready for some kind of rehearsal, or something.

_“Louis!”_ is already being heard from Sebastian as Louis’ waving an animated hand at him from afar and just _knowing_ he'd find him here. The dirty blond boy is getting himself up from one of the audience chairs he’d been sat in towards the front where he’d been discussing things with his peers, making his way up to Louis with sparkling eyes, a red fedora to match his burgundy knit sweater, and that always too bright smile of his.

“Hey there, Seb,” Louis’ saying politely, stepping up to the boy and not even half returning the hug the flamboyant boy presses into him, although Sebastian is all too used to it and accepts it with a warm smile. 

“Who’s the guy?” Sebastian asks, not with hostility—actually more quietly interested than anything, as he’s pulling back from Louis, yet still keeping a hand on Louis’ arm as he glances at Harry beside him.He doesn’t give either of them much chance to answer before he’s darting his eyes to Louis in front of him and speaking only a bit quieter.“You could’ve _told_ me you were switching sides, considering I made it _clear_ I had a crush on you.”

Louis only lets out a clearly inauthentic laugh, giving Sebastian bored eyes.“This is _Harry, but_ he’s not that important anyway,” he begins, gesturing behind him at the boy who steps forward for a hand shake and confirms with Sebastian by telling him he is, indeed, Harry.“And Harry, this is Sebastian.One of my somewhat-friends from when I went here who’s gonna hook us up with this super cool job.”

“Job?” Sebastian’s asking, quirking an eyebrow up and just slightly lost, bringing Louis to sigh and take the boy by his arm in order to pull him away, figuring they need a moment to themselves, especially since Louis kind of wants to surprise Harry with it.

“You know…” Louis begins, head ducked and eyes hinting and low as he still holds Sebastian’s arm.“That _job_ …the one you used to hide from your parents freshman year?”

It dawns on Sebastian slowly, the boy finally nodding once and bringing his voice down to match Louis’ whilst a grin is creeping onto his lips.“So you _are_ switching sides.”

“Would you shut up?” Louis asks, voice still hushed although sharp as he lets go of him.“Now can you use your connection to get the job for us or not?Because we need it _instantly_ , and I’m sure we’d never even get past an interview on our own.”

“Do you have like…” Sebastian begins, parting his lips and gesturing uselessly.“ _Any_ serving experience at all?”

“Served at a burger joint for a while.”

“Dancing experience?”

“Do you even know who I am?”

“Are you at _least_ somewhat fit underneath this giant t-shirt you’re wearing?” Sebastian asks, his eyes not shy in running down Louis’ body, before he comes back up to his eyes with one blink.“I’d assume so.”

“I’m…” Louis starts, getting a hand against his stomach as he thinks on it.“I like to think I have a hot bod.”

“What about your friend?”

Louis glances behind himself at Harry, where it looks like the boy had been intently trying to eavesdrop and has suddenly switched to inspecting his nails, Louis rolling his eyes as he turns toward Sebastian.

“Like I said, he doesn’t matter—if I’m there, just make it so he’s automatically there too,” Louis tells Sebastian.

Sebastian looks a little less than determined, the boy sliding his hands into the back pockets of his dark trousers as he takes one step back, just subtly glancing over at Harry again.There’s a small pause, where Louis is on the verge of slapping the boy upside the head since he's taking too long to simply agree to help them out.

“You sure you guys aren’t together?I mean, the energy here is uncanny.”

“ _Seb.”_

“Fuck, okay,” Sebastian grumbles, putting his hands up, just as one of the theater nerds is calling him from afar, claiming that one of the understudies is missing.“I’ll call up Robert, put in a good word.”

“Today?”

“Um—hello,” Sebastian starts, gesturing towards the general frantic area behind him and giving one of the people a quickly mouthed “ _one second_ ” before turning back to Louis.“Opening night is tomorrow—“

_“Today_ , alright?It’s not like you get paid for this shit,” Louis tells him, Sebastian looking rightfully offended, but Louis knows he ultimately understands that this is just how he talks.

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” Sebastian’s saying, Louis already stepping back on his feet in preparation to rejoin Harry and leave out of this place that _reeks_ of melodrama and hopeless dreams.

“Today. And text me when it's done,” is what Louis’ simply repeating, turning around and not even stopping by Harry once he’s grabbing him by the fabric of his sleeve and bringing him to trail right along, Harry throwing a halfhearted “nice meeting you” on their way out as they’re headed towards the back doors.

“So?” is what Harry’s blurting, once they’ve been walking outside for a few seconds and Louis hasn’t said anything.

“We should be working by tonight,” Louis says simply, not being able to control the almost evil grin that’s splaying upon his lips.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

They’ve gotten the job.Louis knew Sebastian couldn’t resist whatever boyish charm he sees in him.

Which is why he and Harry are now side by side, at the far edge of a wild adult entertainment club where gyrating, half naked men are the main thing on the menu. Louis had remembered that Sebastian had always made _tons_ of money every night here. _Club Diamond,_ is what Louis’ come to learn it’s called.

Whatever the guy had told Robert has him holding out uniforms to both Harry and Louis right now, the guy pretty chill, and also _quite_ fit and tight and built, even though he’s probably one of the few employees here (along with the bartenders) who _isn’t_ dressed in small clothing, only donned in a dashing black-t shirt and equally dark jeans.

He’s already explained to them that given their lack of experience, all they’ll be doing is serving drinks.This does not exempt them from having to wear the uniform however, which Louis doesn’t mind.

Harry _does_ mind though, which is seen in his wide eyes as he just stares at the pile Robert is offering to them, the music thrumming repeatedly in everyone’s ears, the excited screams of both women and men almost drowning it out, the commotion of everyone just _everywhere_ contributing to the chaotic party energy.

The “uniform” consists of tight, black spandex shorts that Louis just _knows_ will accentuate his bum perfectly and show off his glorious thighs, a bowtie that wraps right around their neck all on its own, and a short sleeved black button down that they _must_ wear open at all times.They’re also being given the optional body glitter (although it’s strongly encouraged).

“Do you have any pants?” Harry’s asking, eyes still big and glued to the “clothing” items.

Robert tilts his head at him, toothpick in between his lips that actually makes him look a lot less gayer than he is.His smile is sort of entertained as he takes in Harry’s cutely thrown demeanor, as though he’s looking at a little puppy.

“We _do_ , but the shorts are more likely to get you tips, honey,” he says.“Don’t you want tips?”

“ _I_ want tips,” Louis says proudly, taking _his_ clothes from Robert and ready to get his sexy on.

“I’ll take the pants, thank you,” Harry counters, scratching behind his head and ignoring the bored eyes Louis gives him.

“ _Aw,_ cute,” Robert comments, giving Harry a pat on the shoulder before he tucks the shorts under his arm, although handing Harry the rest of it (which the boy takes with the speed of a tortoise).“I’ll fetch them for you and then assign you guys some tables, alright?” is the last thing he’s telling them on his departure.

Harry’s turning and meeting Louis’ eyes eventually once Robert has left them, his lips simply parted as the sound of the cork of a bottle being popped is somewhere near them.One of the servers even has to cross right in between them, holding a tray of glasses into the air with his long, chiseled bicep.

“Louis.”

“What?This is _fun_ ,” Louis tells him, eyes brightening and smile radiating.“Glitter is literally _falling_ from the ceiling right now, Harold.Do you not see this shit?”He knows he looks like a kid on Christmas as he looks up and around, but he doesn’t care.

“There are also male _strippers_ on the stage.”

Louis doesn’t even grant the boy any of this back and forth that he probably wants to drag out, because soon Robert’s coming back with a pair of pants for Harry and leading them to where everyone usually gets dressed as he’s repeating to them the simplified gist of what to do, which includes making sure to check for I.D. unless the person is obviously pushing fifty, or enforcing the limit when someone’s starting to get too wild, and making sure to _flirt, flirt, flirt_ in every interaction they have with a customer, and this all seems easy enough.

“Can’t believe you’re going with the pants,” Louis’ muttering as he’s pulling his t-shirt off and over his head, the both of them now in the changing room, which is this cool space with dark purple lighting, a black carpet, and lockers for all who wish to use them. 

“I didn’t ask to be a stripper,” Harry’s firing back, inching his arms out of the sleeves of his hoodie.

“Harry, do you even know what stripping is?” Louis asks, tossing his shirt aside and moving to push down his trousers.“Literally all we have to do is take orders and then go to the bar and ask for it.You hardly even have to crack a _smile_.All you have to do is be _sexy_ , like—Harry, you _do_ realize this is the greatest job ever?” He speaks with his pants waving around in his right hand.

“You know what?I’m just gonna stop talking,” Harry says, muffled through the hoodie he’s currently pulling over his head.“And just know in my mind that I’m never leaving _any_ decisions to you again."

“Oh, fuck off.You’ll love it.”

Harry’s in the midst of folding up his hoodie and preparing to turn and stuff it into a locker, before he’s only slightly paused upon just looking at Louis, it seems.

“I thought you didn’t work out?” 

Louis’ just faintly thrown at the question as he’d been working on getting the flowing sleeves upon his arms, just drawing his brows together at the boy.“I don’t?”

“Oh, um…” Harry begins, choosing to close his lips and only nod at himself before shoving the hoodie into a locker.

“You think I’m sexy, don’t you?”

“No, I think you’re a dumbass.”

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

Tonight is going _great._

Just like Louis had predicted, the job is a fucking breeze.It’s basically like his burger job, except he’s a little more naked, and he has to bat his eyelashes at everyone he talks to, and has to get completely used to people just randomly shoving cash into his spandex at his hips.

Even Harry hasn’t complained as much as Louis had expected him to.Although he _is_ just a bit slow learning in the charming aspect, Louis almost convinced the boy doesn’t even know _how_ to flirt, considering pretty much every woman Harry passes by on his way to the bar makes a double take at him, even _in_ his long, straight leg tapered black pants, yet he’s still way behind Louis in tips.

Louis has a tray of drinks in his hands as he’s walking through, the building seeming to grow crowded the deeper into the night it gets, and his only thought is how he thinks it’d be pretty cool, eventually being able to carry the tray high over his head with one palm.

It seems he’s just passing by Harry as they’re going opposite ways, the boy looking blank in the face more than anything as Louis’ immediately offering him a grin and a wink in passing.

The boy needs to suck it up.He knows he loves this.Because Louis _knows_ he, himself, loves this.It’s like an attention high, having women flash their drunken, intrigued eyes at him and up and down his body, ask him if he’s up for body shots (he’s not allowed to do that unfortunately), and yes, even the occasional man asking Louis what he’s doing after (never in their wildest dreams, but Louis likes to give false hope), or if he ever plans on getting up on the stage, one guy even taking Louis by just a bit of surprise when he’s pulling him in with a hand against his hip, just to shove some cash into his pants. _That_ kind of thing is also not allowed, Robert having told them to immediately reprimand overly touchy behavior, but somehow, Louis doesn’t even really mind.

He’s also secretly helped himself to some drinks throughout the night, so that could also be playing a part in his careless nature.

Louis’ in the midst of setting down an empty tray at the bar when he’s noticing a lingering presence in his peripheral, most likely someone who’s uncertain of where they should go, or _start_ , in this crazy ass place.

“Hey beautiful, you looking for a table—“

Once Louis’ properly turning to _look_ at the person, his sentence is clumsily ending, his brows knitting together just a tad, because.He knows this person.

Dark hair, brown, deep eyes, glorious olive skin, rugged jean jacket that doesn’t blend into the vibe of this place at all.

Harry’s roommate. _Zayn._

Zayn?

“Zayn?” Louis asks, breaking out of character as he steps toward the boy, a palm rested out on the bar counter as people move around them, one guy touching Zayn’s shoulder to get by.

“Yeah,” Zayn replies, although he doesn’t look eager to be here.

“Honestly did _not_ know this was your speed, but to each their own—“

“No, Harry told me to come pick him up,” Zayn interrupts with a roll of his eyes, looking around the establishment a bit.“And for good reason, obviously.You know where he is?”

Louis doesn’t even know why the words get some kind of instant, inward reaction out of him that he can’t control.Just, the way he hadn’t been expecting him to say that.Hadn’t even known Harry would _do_ that.It definitely gets him to feel like… _something_.There’s definitely something there tickling at Louis’ feelings machine.

So Louis does his first line of defense mechanism, which is to immediately assume the boy is full of shit.

“Bullshit,” Louis says accusingly, Zayn’s face already twisting at it on the defensive.

“What?”

“He didn’t call you here. _You_ probably just wanna play _mommy_ and whisk him away—just like he’s _told_ me you and Liam have been doing—“

“And even if we _are?”_ Zayn asks, his tone challenging as both of their voices are rising, even though the music and revelry still blasts over everything.“Can you really blame us?You have fucking five dollar bills tucked into your _ass!_ ”

“Those are _twenty_ dollar bills, mister!”

“I don’t give a _shit!_ This isn’t _Harry!”_ the boy’s thundering, arms sharp and gestured out towards everything, Louis feeling the few eyes of the workers at the bar that are noticing them.“So if you don’t mind, just show me to—“

“ _Zayn_ , um, hey,” comes the voice that belongs to the topic of conversation, Louis looking over his shoulder to find Harry shouldering his way up, his eyes big and caught off guard, which is quite odd considering he’d apparently _called_ the boy to come get him.

“Tell him you don’t want to leave,” Louis immediately says, not wasting a moment as he turns his sharp eyes to Harry who’s looking so uncertain and reluctant that Louis could slap him. 

“Tell him you literally _asked_ me to come get you.”

Harry’s scratching behind his neck, furrowing his brows fiercely and obviously not equipped to handle this sort of pressure.“I, uh—“

"Fuck’s sake, spit it _out_ , H!” Louis’ erupting with.

“Would you _give_ him a second—“

“ _Hey, hey,”_ comes the abrupt, sing-song voice of Robert, sliding his way into their surroundings, the grin on his face more of a threat than a pleasantry as he darts his eyes between Harry and Louis.“Can we _not_ bring relationship drama to the middle of the floor?”

“We’re not together, for _fuck’s_ sake!" Louis replies without missing a beat, almost spitting the words out because of how much he’s had to hear the suggestion of it.

“Really?” The question comes from one of the bartenders behind the counter where he wipes down a portion of the surface, who Louis’ actually shared a few jokes with already tonight.His name is either Ben or Bill.“I could’ve sworn you were.You two’ve got quite the weird bond going on, then.”

Zayn’s actually the one offering up a reply with the raise of his brows, although it’s directed at Louis with unmoving, hard eyes.“Nope.Louis hasn’t known him long at all, actually.Probably three weeks,” he starts.“And I’ve known him for _years_.”

“Excuse me,” Louis’ muttering, deciding he doesn’t care about this as he’s stalking through the floor again, having to push his way past sweaty people and chiseled bodies, all along with the techno music that’s threatening to give him a fucking headache.

He just finds his way back to where he and Harry had gotten changed, closing the silky, shimmering curtain of it behind himself (which really doesn’t provide a lot of privacy) as he just runs both hands through his hair and tries to will himself not to have any emotions.

He doesn’t get much time to himself to accomplish that, however, before the curtain is heard being slid open behind him, Louis currently having had his back turned to it and having to whip himself around.

“Aren’t you supposed to be gone already?” Louis asks grimly.

“No, I—“

“ _What?_ I’ve already told you, you don’t have to _fucking_ do things you don’t wanna do, so just—“

“ _Louis!”_ The boy steps forth with both hands cementing themselves to Louis’ bare arms, before shaking him as he continues.“Let me _talk_.”

Louis parts his lips, on the verge of declaring that he doesn’t have to let anyone talk.But he chooses to simply close them eventually, settling down from all the energy that had been built in his body as Harry lets go of him.It’s not often that anyone forcefully makes themselves heard over Louis in order to get their own words out, since drowning people out in an argument is something that Louis’ pretty good at, and it usually works every time.

“I…I _had_ called Zayn,” Harry begins, not meeting Louis’ eyes.“Right at the beginning, when we’d first gotten on the floor to start.”

Louis shrugs once, eyebrows expressive.“What, so you don’t wanna hang out with me anymore?” he asks, although the question is strong and defiant.“Am I just ruining your _fucking_ life and making it miserable, is that it?”

“Jesus you really jump to conclusions,” Harry says with a hand to his own chin, as more of a careful observation than an insult as he’s taking Louis in.

“Sorry that I can only assume _so much_ with the information you’ve given me—“

“I _don’t_ want to stop hanging out with you,” Harry says boldly, closing his eyes briefly when he gets it out, the music faintly muted as it bangs somewhere far from them.“Please.Don’t think I don’t wanna hang out with you anymore.I just…I had a _moment_ , thinking this was gonna be a disaster, and I just… _did_ that.But…”

Louis hates that he just faintly hangs onto his words, his breath almost holding with it as everything between them feels a lot quieter now.

“This isn’t that horrible,” Harry finishes with.“I’m actually enjoying it, so.My bad.”He finishes off with a forced grin and a bit of a chuckle in order to lighten up the mood, Louis not even in the realm of slightly smiling right now because of how he's still recovering from the surge of emotions Zayn had pushed onto him when he'd popped up.

Louis just barely scrunches his face as he closes his eyes briefly, because this feels weird.They just need to get past this.Like, now.

“Okay, when I count to three we’re gonna stop being weird and angsty with each other and just go back to normal.Because I don’t like this.It feels uncomfortable,” Louis says, his eyes open now but low and glued to the boy’s collarbone.He gets a single agreeing hum from Harry.“One, two, three.”

Louis doesn’t know why the end of the count causes him to be able to hold eyes with the boy again, but he’s right back casual as he’s barely grinning and brushing shoulders with the boy as he moves past him, intent to get out of this room and back on the floor in order to have his ass ogled at some more.

“Let’s get back out there then,” Louis’ saying as he leads.

“Right behind you, captain.”

Louis pauses right before he reaches for the curtain in order to slide it open, hand just out and suspended in the air before he turns around on second thought, almost bumping chests with Harry where he’s walking back to face him.

“I just wanna see something really quick,” Louis’ saying, close enough to Harry’s face that he doesn’t have to raise his voice.

In one swift motion, without giving himself time to see Harry’s reaction or even think about it too much, he’s taking a soft hold of the back of the boy’s neck and just pushing his own lips in between Harry’s with closed eyes.

There’s only a barely heard sound of surprise from Harry, but the boy’s lips cooperate with his as much as they can with being caught off guard, their lips only sliding against each other in a languid lock once.He doesn’t even feel Harry’s hands come up to touch him anywhere, which is okay.

He’s granted a short moment of breathing Harry’s air once he pulls back, blinking his eyes open and sliding his hand down from behind the boy’s neck.

Louis only keeps his gaze trained on the boy’s chin, not daring to look up at his eyes as he simply tilts his own head and contemplates how that went.His mind isn’t clear enough to properly decide anything though.

So Louis just shrugs and turns to slide open the curtain again with an “alright, let’s go”.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

The rest of the night actually goes rather swell, which is helpful considering they get off at two in the morning.

He even begins to see a smile on Harry’s face every time he’s granted view of him, the both of them always on opposite sides of everything but catching sight of each other.Louis even feels like quite the proud mother when some girl is running a hand down his abdomen and gawking at her friends about it.

By the end of their shift, all Louis can do is think about getting back into his comfortable clothes, enjoying the wads of cash he’s accumulated today, and _never_ leaving this job.

And suddenly there’s another thing he’s demanded to think about once he and Harry are preparing to change again—and both of the lockers they’d stuffed their items into are mostly empty with just their phones and keys.Their clothing _gone_.

Some very colorful, disbelieving, hysterical curse words are on the tip of Louis’ tongue as he just holds his mouth ajar and keeps his eyes on the open, empty locker, but someone else is speaking up before he can release his rage.

“Oh, you guys must’ve gotten hazed.”

Louis turns his eyes to the guy who’s peeked his head in and is leaned against the wall near the opening, his grin lopsided and taunting.Louis had remembered seeing his face fly by a few times throughout the night, the guy also having been in the skimpy, tight clothing and bowtie, but _now_ he’s dressed much more comfortably in track pants and an oversized tee.

“It’s something they like to do to new people,” he continues with a shrug of one shoulder.“You’ll get your clothes back next shift.”He doesn’t even wait around for any response as he’s walking away with just a single sound of amusement.

“Can’t believe I’m gonna get fired for murder on the first day of the job,” Louis settles on saying, turning around and setting his back against the locker, shaking his head at the heavens.

Harry’s got his arms holding himself at either side, a harsh contrast to the boy who was oozing sex appeal on the club floor just a few minutes ago.“I’m cold.”

Louis only shifts his eyes to a dark area of the wall near the boy, where it seems there are a couple robes hung up, with the Club Diamond logo embroidered on them in gold lettering and all, most likely being a part of the uniform for the private rooms, or something.

“C’mon, we’re taking these,” Louis’ saying as he stalks forward, reaching for the plush, fuzzy material of it and ripping it off the hanger.

“We can’t go out in _robes_ —“

“Well we’re gonna have to,” Louis’ saying, walking over to thrust it into the boy’s chest, which he of course takes.“And _I’m_ gonna have to be a good sport today and _not_ murder people for taking my clothes, because I actually somewhat wanna keep this job for the time being, so come _on.”_

He doesn’t even know why Harry always insists on putting up a fight when he knows he’s just going to eventually comply with Louis, which is why they’re both soon donned and tied up in the long, back robes, at least having their _shoes_ as they leave out the back out of fear that someone may tell them they’re not allowed to take the robes.

“So where’d your friend park?” Louis’ asking once they’re out in the nighttime, the club life dying down upon the boulevard, since everyone has to get home _sometime._

“Zayn?’ Harry asks, hands in his robe pockets as they walk toward the sidewalk.“He left after I told him I actually wanted to stay.”

Louis pauses in his footsteps.“What?How are we gonna get home?I let my phone die.”

Harry’s looking just as quieted and concerned as he gives Louis the exact same energy.“I let _my_ phone die.I thought we were just gonna call an Uber, like you did when we _got_ here?”

“Fuck.” Louis presses a fist to his forehead as he looks up at the heavens, just walking forth aimlessly and trying to think of something.He’s simply walking over to sit upon the low steps of some building he doesn’t even know, Harry coming along to join him as Louis whips his phone out of his pocket.

“There’s gotta be _some_ juice in this thing,” Louis’ saying, clicking his phone on and trying _not_ to think about how lone and eerie everything is right about now as it’s deep in the night and not a soul is outside on one of the busiest streets of the city.It’s like he’s found treasure when his phone is clicking on, and he even feels Harry sigh with relief next to him too, the unhelpful bloke. 

Louis works to send out a text to Niall as quickly as he can since his phone is showing it’s going to die again any minute now.

**Louis:** _pleeeassee come pick me upMY PHONE’S ABOUT TO DIE IM STRANDED AT CLUB DIAMOND_

And it at least sends before the phone turns to black.

“There,” Louis says with a shrug, leaning back against the door to the establishment.“We’ll either get picked up, or eventually realize no one’s coming.”

“Or get kidnapped somewhere in there too.”

“Hey,” Louis fires, turning his head towards the boy.“It’s _your_ friend who came here to play mother and then didn’t even check if you’d need a ride.”

“I think he’s sorta frustrated with me, or something,” Harry’s replying defensively, studying the thick sleeves of the robe that only leave his fingertips showing.

“He’s annoying, is what he is.”

“He’s not _annoying_ ,” Harry says, eyes slightly narrowed at Louis.“He’s just always sort of had this…older brother mentality with me.I don’t think he can help it.”

Louis only barely thinks on that as he burrows his chin into his own chest of fur in order to gather some warmth.“He’d probably approve of me better if I had that sort of mentality towards you too.”He lets the thought marinate some more, silence surrounding them at every corner as the traffic lights at the intersections change with no cars.“But I just, like…can’t. Was never really good at that with anyone, and can’t do it now, so.Sorry.”

Harry is looking up with what seems like exhaustion, dropping his hands in his lap.“Louis, you’re literally the last person on Earth I would ever want to have as a brother,” Harry says tiredly.“That is, unless I want the worst role model known to man.”

“So we’re on the same page then,” Louis jokes, nudging Harry’s arm with his and getting a warm eye roll in return.

They sit for a while, just as close as they usually are on Louis’ couch with their ice cream sundaes.Except this time around, it’s actually helpful due to the chilly night.Louis needs the warmth.

And the minutes float by, the both of them easily quiet, Louis assuming that Harry is still cooling down from the energetic night, just like he is. Right now, sitting like this on the stairs with the moon and the silence, it's almost hard to believe they'd even done that tonight.

Harry's the first one speaking up again after what feels like ten minutes.

“Are we gonna talk about you kissing me?” Harry’s asking, not even looking at Louis and instead studying his fingertips again as he says it.

“Really,” Louis says tonelessly.“We’re in the middle of downtown at three a.m., with no confirmation that anyone’s gonna pick us up, about twenty minutes from freezing our asses off, and that’s what you wanna talk about.”

Harry’s quieted a bit, huffing only once with a slightly wrinkled face.“Um…”

“I mean, we can talk about it,” Louis says with a shrug and a nod, watching the side of Harry’s face as Harry’s not looking back at him.“…or we can just do it some more.”

This is what’s finally bringing Harry to turn his head and lay his eyes upon Louis, Louis completely disguising the fact that his breath stills for half a moment, just releasing a smooth exhale from his nose.The crazy thing is, both of their eyes don’t fall down to each other’s lips for a while, the both of them just close and watchful as Harry’s sinking himself in just a tad, as though to make himself more level with Louis in case they _are_ going to do it.

But eventually they _are_ looking at each other’s lips but not even making a move to inch in, Louis being the bold one who made the first move to gaze downward, just now realizing that he’d never noticed how _pink_ Harry’s are.Also, the way the boy’s breaths feel warm in the air between them could be super helpful for the cold right now.

Louis’ in perfect position to be blinded by the headlights that are coming up and approaching them near the sidewalk, Louis instantaneously having winced in reaction to it and pulled back with his bushy sleeve shielding his face.The way the car lets out that girly high pitched honk is the only thing that makes Louis certain this is Niall’s car, regardless of if he even has proper eyesight to see it right now or not.

“Our carriage awaits,” Louis says, rising to his feet with a sigh.

Louis has to go for the backseat since a bunch of Niall’s shit is in the passenger seat that he doesn’t even use _manners_ enough to take the time to move, instead just setting his unamused eyes on Louis and tilting his head towards the back door.

“You _do_ know you own a car, right?” Niall asks once they’re inside, slamming the doors behind themselves.“The rusty old pickup truck?”

“Yes, but cars equal _gas_ , which I genuinely can’t deal with right now.”

“I’m sleepy,” Harry’s barely mumbling, his eyes even looking heavy with it as he moves in order to get into a sideways lying position across the remainder of the seat, no regard for whether or not _Louis_ had wanted any additional space.“Ugh.Are your cushions made of _metal_?”

“You know you’re gonna have to get back to real life _sometime_ , right Louis?” Niall asks, ignoring Harry as he’s cruising down the lone streets, just briefly sharing eyes with Louis through the rearview mirror.

Louis wasn’t really planning on saying anything important, but he’s sidetracked anyway when there’s a palm simply placed upon the fuzzy fabric of his robe where his thigh is, Louis looking down at an almost sleeping Harry with an eyebrow raised.

“Pillow?” the boy asks quietly, his voice certainly only heard by Louis.

“Whatever,” Louis says with a huff, Harry humming with satisfaction and scooting himself up the half a foot in order to get the side of his head upon Louis’ thigh, eyes floating closed.“When that _sometime_ leaps up and grabs me by the neck, I promise you Niall, I will come right back to _real life.”_

“I just picked you up outside of a male strip club, and you’re wearing nothing but a robe,” Niall comments.“I think it’s already grabbed you by the neck.”

“For your information, I'm not _completely_ naked under here. Plus, Harry and I are kinda having the time of our lives if you ask me,” Louis says with a shrug, Harry scooting to get more comfortable upon Louis’ lap, pulling the robe he’s swimming in up over himself in order to sort of lay hidden under it, Louis strangely taking note of how light his head feels, despite how huge it looks.

“Well, just know I’m not about to sit here and be your _go-to_ for stranded middle of the night pickups,” Niall says, his voice drenched with exhaustion as he’s stopped at a red light, despite no cars being at the intersection whatsoever.“Where am I dropping you off at, Harry?”

Louis closes his lips as he looks down at the pile of fuzzy robe in his lap that’s covering the boy, only half thinking that he might have fallen asleep.

“Yours,” the boy’s mumbling, almost inaudible and with no volume where he’s buried.

“What was that?” Niall’s asking.

“Um, he’s…” Louis starts, looking down and just hesitantly settling a hand upon where the boy’s head should be.“He doesn’t need to be dropped anywhere.You can just head to my place.”

He can just _feel_ Niall’s eyes on him in the rearview mirror again, but Louis doesn’t return his gaze as he’s looking below him in order to get _any_ sort of reaction that confirms that that was what Harry had even said. 

And the single nod the boy makes is all Louis needed to see, Louis biting down on the inside of his cheek and guessing that’s just that.

“…alright,” Niall’s finally obliging, the traffic light seeming to turn green for the first time in years.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

“Seriously.There’s oversized, and then there’s guaranteeing you look like a shrunken person,” Harry’s saying, holding his arms open and observing the drooping sleeve of the huge cream sweatshirt he’s just gotten on.“Why do _you_ even own this?”

“Could you stop providing commentary and just _put_ the clothes on?” Louis says exhaustedly, reclined amongst the pillows on his bed as he scrolls through his phone out of boredom.“It came in handy because it fits you, and that’s all that matters.Although we ran out of luck in the pants department,” he adds, looking over at Harry and not being able to help giggling again at how the only clean sweatpants Louis has big enough for the boy scrunches up at his calves and grips around his junk.

Harry’s being a good sport and laughing too where he’s stood by Louis’ bed, his chin down as he inspects himself, before he brings his legs up and tries his best to get them to go further down again.His hair is cascading over his face with his downward position, Louis strangely intrigued by it.

“Can’t believe I did that tonight,” Harry’s laughing, his voice gentle for the nighttime.“Like…I had to be eye candy as a _job_.”

“And got _rich_ out of it,” Louis adds pointedly, now watching Harry flip his hair back up and out of his face as he stands up straight again, running his fingers through the tresses.“I saw you racking up the tips over there towards the end of the night, you sexy, sexy boy.”

“ _Stop_ , okay?I’m off the clock,” Harry jokes, although his face is more blank and concentrated as he inspects Louis’ pointy headboard, that has a bit of a spike to it.

“You _do_ realize you haven’t looked me in the eyes since we almost kissed again, and I’m fully aware of that, right?” Louis finds himself asking, just because he can’t avoid teasing the boy about it for even another second.“Toughen _up_ for god’s sake, Styles.”

Harry’s immediately blowing a huff into his fist in some sort of fake cough thing, Louis pleased by this display of aloof fluster—that’s because of _him_ , which somehow feels pretty rewarding.

“I can look you in the eyes,” Harry says defensively, his eyes coming to Louis’, just a few feet between them where Louis’ laid on his bed, only the light from the bathroom somewhat illuminating things up a bit.He gestures between the both of them.“I’m looking at you right now.”

“Yeah, _now,_ because I pointed it out.”

“I’ll stare at you all damn _day_ ,” Harry challenges, moving forth upon the bed on his knees, sinking the mattress of it and setting narrowed eyes on Louis. 

Louis rises to his palm in the bed, keeping his eyes glued to the boy as their faces are coming within a foot of each other.“Oh will you?”

“Yes, I will,” Harry replies, volume lowering between them as they’re engaged in an entertaining staring match. 

Louis doesn’t know why this is the first time he’s internalized that Harry has green eyes, especially in the near darkness of his bedroom, but he’ll take it.

And he guesses he stands corrected.Because the boy’s eyes are stitched right into his, Louis tempted to look at his lips to see if they’re quivered with contained laughter too. 

“Jesus, where the fuck did you come from?” Louis asks, not helping his crinkled eyes and tight grin as he shakes his head.

Harry’s words are spoken through a similarly curved grin.“Whatd’you mean?”

“How did you enter my life,” Louis says, his voice more on the hushed side as he lets his head float down amongst the pillows, the side of his face mushed as he still keeps his eyes attached to Harry’s.“And I just like… _know_ you now.”

Harry floats down with him, rested on his stomach with his elbows bunched under his chest, his dimples deep on either side of his cheeks.

“I rose up from the fiery pits of hell,” Harry says, raising his brows deviously, getting Louis to shove his face away and finally breaking their eye contact, the both of them only interested in sleepy laughter now.

Louis’ grateful that he doesn’t have to verbally tell the boy that he can sleep in the same bed as him, and that the boy just sort of _figures_ it, once Louis’ telling him to turn the bathroom light off and Harry’s saying that he’ll only do it if he gets the left side.

Harry had been knocked out pretty quickly, which made sense because he’d been on the verge of sleep since their shift ended anyway, and he doesn’t even bother trying to get under the covers where he’s cemented there, his hair wild and threatening to suffocate him.Louis’ only left with a few minutes of quiet, dark silence before he’s slipping into a sleep too.

They sort of wake up at the same time, because it’s the movement of Harry stirring awake that gets Louis to shift where he’s laying down.The boy’s also making these quiet little groans as though he’s still trying to force himself to sleep, and Louis’ seeing it as he’s blinking his eyes so that they’re barely open.The boy sleeps on his back, Louis’ come to learn right now.Quite a peaceful position, very different from Louis who almost always ends up in a position on his stomach with one of his legs hiked up and cuddling whatever blanket he’s hugging.

“Would you just wake up already,” Louis says, his voice croaked and groggy as he pulls the blanket over himself—well, as much as he can while Harry’s giant body is weighing a lot of it down.

Harry actually jerks awake in response to this, eyes quickly darting around at his surroundings, before he finally seems to _get it_ , and is simply putting a hand to his chest and moving to sink his head back into the pillows.

“Idiot,” Louis finds himself laughing lazily, Harry joining in with his eyes closed, his shoulders shaking with it.

Their laughter settles down naturally, Louis feeling quite relaxed and easygoing in this moment.Not having to work until nighttime is literally perfect.

“I actually, um…” Harry begins, appearing to recall a fond memory as he blinks up at the ceiling.“When I was a kid, I used to think I was in heaven every time I woke up in the morning.”

Louis quirks an eyebrow up, although his lips are still curved a small bit.“Why in the world would you think that?”

“I just sleep very deeply,” Harry responds, tilting his head toward Louis and shrugging a shoulder.“So the change of consciousness is always really overwhelming to me.”

“And you would think you were _dead_ ,” Louis says bluntly.“You were a weird ass child, then.”

“At least I wasn’t a comic book nerd,” Harry retorts, before blocking a pillow with his hand that Louis’ just thrown at him.

“I grew up with a bunch of sisters and my mum, so I didn’t exactly have a cliché, _manly man_ image enforced upon me,” Louis replies, his words half muffled into the pillow he’s still laid up against.

“So like, tea parties and knitting?”

“Now you’ve leaned a little too much the other way,” Louis answers, before blowing a yawn into his fist.“They were pretty neutral girls.Into the dumbest rock bands and played soccer and shit.”

“Ah, girls and their rock bands,” Harry’s sighing with a calm release of breath.“My sister’s dating some sorry excuse for an aspiring rockstar right now, actually.”

“No offense, but your sister sounds like she has a really suckish love life.”

Harry’s turning his face and his faint dimples to Louis with a nod.“Oh, she does.”

“God, you’re a horrible brother.You’re not supposed to _agree_.”

“ _Shut up_ ,” Harry’s scoffing, shaking his head out and looking back forward.“Do you just thrive off of silly arguments with me, or something?”

“Yes, actually.”

“Well, I’m not entertaining you right now, sir,” Harry replies, his eyes falling closed.“All I’m thinking about is how much I wanna pee, but how much I _don’t_ wanna get up, since this bed is like a fucking cloud. Seriously, top five nights of sleep ever.”

“What can I say, I actually _did_ invest in a quality mattress.” 

“Yeah,” Harry agrees peacefully, Louis strangely enamored with just watching his resting head and his blissfully closed eyes.Harry’s eyebrows only wrinkle just a bit, the boy seemingly trying to will his legs to move.“Come on.You have to go pee.”

“Wait, let me try something,” Louis starts, scooting in and reaching an arm out, simply bringing his fingers to nestle into the jungle of the boy’s hair.He simply gives a few strands a gentle tug, Harry looking at him with a quirked eyebrow.Louis makes a point of looking down at the boy’s idle legs, then looking at Harry pointedly, then tugging again, and it’s actually a miracle, how the boy instantly gets it.They’re doing it _Ratatouille_ style.

“Okay,” Harry laughs, his left leg sliding off the side of the bed as Louis is growing thoroughly amused with this and tugging his hair different ways.“Got the left leg moving, but you have to work the right side too.” 

Louis follows suit, getting both hands working in order to be gently toying with two chunks of the boy’s hair as he’s thoroughly giggling, the early morning atmosphere making everything feel endlessly fluffy as Harry’s now sat up with both legs hanging off of the bed.

“Where to next?” Harry’s giggling over his shoulder, Louis close in behind him on his knees, Harry’s hair bunched at the top of his head.

“Now… _bathroom_ ,” Louis’ saying as he surges forward with his hands surely yanking on the boy’s strands now, Harry actually going “ _ow_ ” but Louis not caring as he’s getting on his feet upon the bed in order to lift the boy up, before skipping right down from the bed and directing him from behind quite clumsily and without coordination, certain his fingers are tangled in the boy’s hair as he manhandles him into the bathroom.

Harry actually loses balance so much that he has to catch himself on the bathroom counter, the both of them right in front of the mirror where they stare at themselves and can’t stop laughing as Louis’ now making two messy strands of hair float above the boy’s head.

“You suck at this,” Harry tells him in the mirror, although his dimples are damn near permanent. "I would actually _prefer_ a rat at this point."

“Maybe if you didn’t have so much _hair_ , I wouldn’t struggle so much,” Louis’ saying matter-of-factly, just giving up and mussing the boy’s hair up with a sloppy hand, getting it piled near his forehead as he’s practically forced to smile back at the boy’s laughing, dimpled reflection, Harry still swimming in the cream sweatshirt and looking freshly rested.

“Go do your business, tough guy,” Louis tells him with a rough pat to his shoulder before turning to head out of the bathroom.“You like cereal, right?”

“Yeah,” Harry’s replying, Louis hearing it as he’s stepping to grab his phone from the nightstand“Do you have—“

“And I didn’t ask all that.You’ll take what I give,” Louis says with a cheeky grin, before skipping his way out of the bedroom and towards his kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pls comment if anyones reading so i know to continue :)


	5. Chapter 5

Tonight is definitely one of their finer nights at Club Diamond.Louis is on _fire_.

Probably because Louis _may_ have had a little too much to drink, but it hasn’t stopped the tips, or deterred his flirting technique, or made him drop a tray _yet,_ so he figures all is good.

He’s currently on _fire_ , however, because due to flattering encouragement and unmistakable energy that everyone’s washing upon him tonight, he’s been hoot and hollered at enough to finally give into everyone’s wishes and hop up on the stage right near the table he’d been serving, just taking a hold of the pole and getting his crotch right up to it as he arches his back and lets his tongue wag out of his mouth with exhilaration, the cheers surrounding growing in volume _instantly_ , even Nico (the guy on the pole nearest to him) whistling at him.

Louis has absolutely _no_ idea how to work a pole, but he figures with the liquor coursing through his veins, and the R&B music being particularly captivating right now, that all he really has to do is swing his way around it by his right hand like he’s at the playground, and everyone will eat it up all the same.Because if there’s one thing that Louis has learned while working at this establishment, it’s that he’s _hot_.

“What are you doing up there?” 

Although it’s not even said much louder then everything else that’s going on, the boy’s voice kind of stands out enough for Louis to look down towards it, now holding onto the pole for balance.

Harry’s absolutely smiling up at him from way down below, getting shouldered and brushed by several different strangers as they’re trying to come forth in order to give Louis their tips.

“I’m being a _stripper,_ what does it look like?” Louis asks, getting on all fours and crawling up to a guy that has cash thrust toward him right next to Harry, simply taking it in his mouth and not being angry that the guy touches his fingers under Louis’ chin once Louis’ retreating back from him with dark eyes.

“Really unsanitary,” Harry’s saying matter-of-factly.

Louis doesn’t even offer him any other words and simply shakes his head.Then he’s hopping up and giving himself momentum as he rushes back up to the pole and simply tries to see how high he can jump himself on it, all to the tune of more whistling and clapping and cheering.

The burn against his thighs is a _bitch_ when he’s sliding down though.No one’s ever warned him of that.Thankfully, the alcohol in his blood eases him through it a bit.

Not that Louis doesn’t let loose everyday at this job, but the reason he’s helped himself to just a bit more than the usual amount of alcohol today, is because it’s a Friday, the tips are _bountiful_ and almost too much, the place is packed with enjoyment, and he and Harry even have the weekend off. 

They’d even taken the liberty of inviting their friends for the night, just to give them an opportunity for free drinks, _and_ also to prove to them that this shit is _cool_ and that he and Harry are genuinely having fun.

And it honestly seems like it’s working—well, if anything, he knows it’s working on Niall, the guy having been planted far away in his seat at the bar, looking as though he’s having some drunken, life changing conversation with the guy behind the counter across from him (it’s Ben, Louis knows that now), Louis even sometimes hearing his signature guffaws of laughter from absolutely anywhere.

Zayn and Liam have stayed put at the table they’d gotten, pretty far away from the commotion and gyrating servers, but Liam seems comfortable enough with whatever lady he’s chosen to engage with who stands near their table and chats him up.This is a _perfect_ place for matchmaking, Louis thinks.

Zayn is quite unreadable, but honestly, in Louis’ drunken, on-top-of-the-world state, he couldn’t care less.He just wants to make the most of tonight so that he can be swimming in money during the weekend where he’ll have nothing to look forward to besides the concert.

And, oh yeah.They’re supposed to be attending a concert tomorrow for this local cover band of the indie rock persuasion, and it’d been some kind of weird, outrageously coincidental thing when Niall had suggested it to Louis, because just a few days before that, he and Harry had _just_ admitted to actually enjoying the band and wanting to see them live.They really know how to make popular songs their own and their shows get really crazy.

So Niall telling Louis about it, turned into Louis instantly telling Harry about it, which of course brought Harry to tell his absolute _besties_ Zayn and Liam, and so they’re all just going.Even though Louis could care less about the other two.

This weekend should be fun, though.

And that’s all Louis reminds himself of as he sort of gets lost just alternating between kneeling on the stage and sticking his ass out for people who want to give him tips, and just flinging himself at the pole like a madman and doing whatever feels right.He’s surprised Robert hasn’t even reprimanded him—the guy’s actually _encouraged_ him upon walking up and seeing all the praise Louis was receiving.

He doesn’t know why the only thing that gets him to deter his hour long streak of overflowing confidence and power is the sight of Harry in the distance at Zayn’s table, just holding a tray with empty glasses in his hand as he talks to the boy.It’s just that…Harry’s been there for a while.Just _talking_ to the boy, and from here, the conversation doesn’t look fun either.God, the boy is supposed to be _working_.Where is Robert and his tendency to creep around when Louis needs him?

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

“Can you guys like…chill?”

The question’s coming from Niall, the boy always being the one who wants to keep things on the more mellow side as they’ve finally gotten through the ticket gate, entering the small, enclosed venue where the concert will be held.

“ _No!_ Because I’m not in the wrong here, and Louis needs to know that!”

“Getting me to say I’m _wrong_ about anything will land you in a cold day in _hell_ , I’ll tell you that!”

“Which is exactly why it’s so hard to ever fucking _reason_ with you, you dipshit!”

“Harry." The calm calling of his name is said by Liam as they’re approaching the area where they’ll be standing, not even right upon the stage and actually, the furthest they could _possibly_ stand while still being on the floor, since getting five people to all be on _time_ was clearly something that proved itself to be difficult.

“No, let him keep going,” Louis spits, crossing his arms defiantly and keeping his eyes unamused as he takes his place to stand at the very back of the crowd.“He’s just being a sensitive idiot.”

“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Harry’s starting, stepping right in front of Louis and ignoring everyone’s groans and requests for him to just drop it.“You _leave_ me—leave the _club_ early without telling _anyone_ , to go fuck some girl you met on the floor—when you _know_ , you _know_ that we were the only two assigned to pick up money off the floor after close last night.”

“I’d fucking forgot!” Louis’ saying, throwing his hand out and feeling like he can’t stress this enough.

“I had to stay until fucking _five a.m.!”_ Harry’s replying.“It’s called being _selfish!”_

“When have I ever claimed _not_ to be selfish, huh?” Louis asks, raising a brow at the boy, Harry simply breathing carefully through his nostrils as he closes his lips and tightens his jaw just a touch.

“…he kinda has a point,” Niall’s commenting, Louis feeling the boy shrug beside him. 

Louis suddenly steps over and behind Niall, manhandling the boy by the shoulders and getting to the right side of him.“Just stand in between us, please.I’d rather not have to look at his face during this concert.”

“ _Fine_.”

“ _Fine.”_

And there, that’s all there is that needs to be said about that.

And then it’s not, when Harry and his always moving lips have even more to say, bringing Louis to have to shout at him right back, Niall holding a hand to Louis’ chest since he’s between them, and Louis is practically yelling right by the boy’s ear about how Harry needs to learn a thing or two about covering for people, since one of his main complaints is having to scramble to cover for Louis to Robert, since he’d had no idea where Louis had gone to.

The only thing that _actually_ gets them to shut up is the threat of being thrown out that’s spoken to them by one of the security guards that comes over, Liam immediately apologizing for them, and Louis going right back to tightly crossed arms over his chest and setting hard eyes on the stage that he can barely even _see_ from here with all the shadows of bodies in front of him.

God, he knew he and Harry wouldn’t last long.He knew the boy was a weakling from the start, unable to handle the _true_ depths of Louis once he was exposed to them.Louis won’t waste another moment thinking of it.He’s only just mildly regretful he’d told him about the dead guy apartment thing.

Oddly, however, when the band’s starting up and the cheers and hands are going in the air all around and mostly in front of them, Louis can’t stop thinking about it.

It’s just, ugh.Harry’s really ruined his vibe for tonight.His favorite songs are being played and everyone’s screaming their hearts out to the lyrics, and all Louis can think about is this stupid imbecile on the other side of Niall, who takes things way too fucking seriously. Like _hello_ , they'd literally built their entire dynamic off of making it a gospel _not_ to take things seriously, so it doesn't make any sense that Harry's acting like this.

Louis tries his best to loosen himself up a bit, just because this _is_ an awesome band, and even with how far they are, Niall seems to be vibing out right next to him as he’s bobbing his head and trying to discreetly light a joint that’s to his lips.

Louis nudges the boy, Niall at this point needing to know that he should never light up without inviting Louis too, and soon Louis’ taking a drag out of the joint as the drum tracks on “Fool in the Rain” are filling his ears, Louis faintly hearing Harry telling Liam what the song is that’s being played.

Being high is the remedy for everything, Louis thinks, because it pretty much solves and sedates anything negative that Louis had been feeling, and in an orderly fashion too.Soon, he’s more able to just enjoy the music, and start shouting the lyrics along with everybody, and not mind having his shoulders pushed at from every side as more and more people fill the venue.

“Fuck, this is awesome,” Niall’s saying at some point, having to speak over the deafening sound of the performance, paired with everyone festive and thundering around them.

“I know, _right?”_ Louis’ shouting back, his head moving almost as though it’s detached from his head with the way he’s bobbing it, high off his ass as the different bodies are shoving him around.

Louis’ not even concerned with keeping his eyes toward the stage that he can’t even see from here anyway, everything dark and sort of blending in together around him as he’s dancing around in his own little world, giving Niall a show of entertainment as he’s playing his air guitar right along with “Nothing Else Matters”, his back fully bumping into the backs of people who are still turned towards the stage.He can’t help it, he knows this riff-liscious guitar solo by heart.

And he doesn’t know why, but he’d almost kind of even forgotten that Harry was there.Only because he’s been in his own little world since the moment the weed had started working on him.But no, there the boy is, eyes closed and hair cascading over his face as he’s playing that exact same guitar solo, Louis not helping the way his lip just barely twitches at the sight of it.

Louis’ kicking a leg out for dramatic emphasis as he’s stepping himself up to the boy with his imaginary guitar still in hand, Harry’s eyes now open and taking amusement out of this.Harry makes a move to get down on one knee as though admiring Louis’ finger work on his imaginary guitar, shaking his head and hair out wildly and throwing his head back as the guitar solo reaches its electric peak, Louis fully reveling in all of this.Especially because he knows, and Harry knows, that this solo is both of their favorite parts of this particular song that the band covers, the both of them having binged live performances of it for four hours one night.So it makes sense that not much else that’s happened before this matters once Louis’ grinning down at the mere black figure of the boy with how dark their surroundings are, before Harry’s rising to his feet and touching his forehead with Louis’ on the way up, the both of them very much shoved and drowned out by everything around them but still attempting to belt the lyrics with lips that are happily curved.

It’s so dark where they are that it goes unnoticed where Louis and Harry are sort of getting a high off of becoming lost in each other with the shared love of this song, Louis finding it beautiful that they both agree that the high spirited energy and buzz in the air should triumph whatever dumb shit they’d been arguing about.

“You _animal_ ,” Louis yawps in the boy’s face, high enough to give his forehead one more nudge with his own and fully let his eyes play upon the boy’s lips for a half second even though it can’t be seen, before he’s shoving the boy back playfully and turning around to stumble toward Niall and ask for another drag of the joint (somehow they’d migrated further back than the rest of the boys since their whole jam-out moment, Louis not even having noticed they’re mostly immediately surrounded by strangers).

Niall just lets him have the joint, Louis’ cheeks hollowing around it as the song they’re beginning to play now is one of the slower ones.He's swaying his way back up to Harry and shouldering people who bump him as he blows the smoke with no regard for anyone else’s air.He only grants Harry a subtle wink that he probably can’t see before he’s rotating around back towards the stage, letting the keyboard and the slow build of the beat marinate in his ears.This is actually a really awesome concert, so far.

Louis’ only brought out of being in his own little groovy world, actually not even knowing he’d had his own eyes closed while he took a drag out of the joint, until he’s feeling both of Harry’s hands on his head from behind, the boy seeming to…lean himself there nicely.Chin and all.Louis should honestly scold him.

But strangely, Louis’ body isn’t in cahoots with his mind when the only thing he’s doing is subtly leaning back into the boy just barely, Harry probably not even being able to notice it.Louis had needed something to lean on anyway.His feet are getting tired.

So Louis just enjoys his place where he has a bit of his weight rested on the boy, his back pretty snug to Harry’s chest, and the boy just makes himself comfortable atop of Louis’ head even though he hadn’t asked permission.Things are simmering in the crowd a bit with the current song too, a bunch of people even having their phones up with the flashlights on, the movement around Louis, tight at his sides, practically forcing him to sway right along too.It’s really calming and chill, though.The energy right now.

And then, as slow and as reluctant as ever, one of Harry’s hands is leaving Louis’ hair, which Louis finds himself opening his eyes to.But he’s not even finished barely reacting to the cold of it before he feels two sources of touch sliding quietly against both sides of his waist.

Louis immediately reacts on autopilot pretty much, simply just giving into what he would normally do in any situation given this boy were anyone else, which is pinch him really hard at the skin of his forearm, Harry immediately flinching with an “ _ow_ ” close against Louis’ ear as Louis’ turning his chin up to give him his hard eyebrows.The boy does not just get to _touch_ him.

He can’t really pick apart the expression on the boy’s face, but he definitely knows that he blinks a few times, probably because he hadn’t known he would get pinched, but Louis just huffs and turns back to face forward.Although he does lean back against him again just a little bit.

Because he didn’t _mean_ it.It was just a reflex.

And Louis tries to make it known by just getting his head more nestled against the boy’s chest as he tilts his head back, because he doesn’t want to _say_ it. 

And although it takes quite a while, Louis in his peripheral vision literally _seeing_ Harry’s hands down below, just in the air by his waist but reluctant to touch, eventually the contact is being made again, and Harry’s hands are sliding their way against Louis’ shirt to meet at the front of his abdomen.Harry even uses the little area Louis’ given him with how he’s tilted into him, Harry fitting right in with his chin against Louis’ shoulder.

And that’s just that.Naturally Louis’ fingers just hold onto the boy’s forearms as he keeps himself comfortable there, and not a single soul around them even fucking cares.Definitely not the boys just about a foot in front of them who are enamored with the show and aren’t even aware it’s going on.

And it’s…cool.

During their time of about fifteen minutes of being wrapped up with each other like this, the only person who’s really _seeing_ it is Liam at one point, having searched for them, and having just found them, nodded once, and turned around.Everything’s too dark to know what his face read as, but it doesn’t matter.

Eventually they’re separated from each other again, when the show is coming to a close and Harry’s arms are falling.The boy should really know that he doesn’t just get to _decide_ when they stop touching.

“Jesus, can’t believe you finished it,” Niall’s saying once the lights have come on at a low level and he’s walking up to Louis and the tiny roach of a joint he has between two fingers.

Everyone’s in a general consensus that the show was awesome as people are lingering around loudly and preparing to file out, the discussion topic eventually turning into brainstorming a place that they could eat in order to end off the night.

“Ugh…going out to eat.So boring,” Louis declares, immediately receiving an eye roll from Zayn.

“Louis, we’re starving,” Niall tells him.

“I’m _pumped_ after that concert.I’m _restless_ ,” Louis fires back.“I don’t wanna _sit!”_

“We could walk,” Harry’s saying, these being the first words he’s spoken in what seems like forever, Louis turning toward him and finding the boy scratching behind his neck with an eyebrow quirked at Louis.Then he turns to the others who are contemplating his suggestion, gesturing between him and Louis.“Us two.Since like, you guys are tired, and hungry, and…stuff.”

“Weren’t you guys _just_ fighting?" Zayn asks, eyes narrowing.

“The past doesn’t matter, nor does it technically exist,” Louis decides on replying with, before starting on his journey to walk and roughing up Harry’s hair with one hand on the way past.“Catch you guys whenever.C’mon, Harold.”

He doesn’t stick around for any goodbyes, although he can hear that that’s what Harry’s hurriedly doing before the boy is skipping up behind to join him, just like he’s done since the first day they’d met, really.His friends are really just going to have to accept the fact that at all times, Harry would rather be right up under him than frolicking at Taco Nights with them.

They end up trailing the nighttime streets along with a good number of other people who are walking from the venue and aimlessly dallying the avenue nearby.As time passes though, at some point they end up in an area neither of them know, very much more alone now whether they look forward or behind themselves.

So they do the only thing there _is_ to do when one finds that they’re in the middle of lone streets at nighttime, which is howl into the air to see how loud they can be, since no one is around to tell them to shut up.

“That was _weak_ ,” Louis scoffs after Harry’s just cupped his hands around his mouth and blown a wolf howl right into the air.

Harry’s shove is pretty aggressive as he’s walking beside him, Louis actually stumbling down to the street and off the sidewalk with it.“That was _top notch._ You’re just jealous it was better than yours. _”_

“Oh, you wanna see me _really_ try?” Louis’ telling him, before skipping and putting his entire body into it when he lets his hoot echo through the air, his eyes up at the dots of stars.

“Someone probably thinks people are getting murdered somewhere,” Harry huffs through heavy laughter, Louis laughing right back and thinking of how funny that is, some stranger far away just panicked and confused about what’s going on.

They aren’t ready to succumb themselves to being _inside_ once they’re reaching Louis’ apartment complex (having decided walking there would be a _useful_ journey), because the air tonight is _great,_ Louis feels.More so than he’s experienced in a while.And the stars are visible, and his couch is boring, so yeah, it makes sense that they just collapse on the grass outside of theapartment building in front of the parking lot.They end up laid on their backs, Harry somehow having gotten his head tucked into Louis’ shoulder as their bodies are close together, practically left ankle on top of right ankle, and Louis’ got a hand up to Harry’s hair keeping him close in, just holding him there as their conversations don’t stop and they stare up at the cloudy night sky, Louis sometimes working his fingers through the strands of the boy's hair.

“So crazy how we could just be like…staring in the direction of a whole other galaxy right now,” Harry says, his voice soft and lulling, Louis feeling the way he rises and lowers with his breaths.

“I _know_ ,” Louis replies, awed.“What if there’s like, life somewhere else and, from like… _billions_ of light years away they’re just staring right back at us too and don’t know it.”

“That’d be an incredibly uncanny, wild ass coincidence, for starters,” Harry’s replying matter-of-factly and laughing with it, Louis blinking boredly even though Harry isn’t in a position to see it.

“But literally everything is a crazy fucking coincidence, look around you,” Louis says, letting his eyes close and his fingertips continue to brush at the boy’s hair, getting his head more comfortably snug against Harry.“We’re literally here by coincidence.We _met_ by coincidence.”

“And were seeking the exact same thing, at pretty much the same time too.”

“Right,” Louis replies easily.“But there’s no like—ultimate, extraneous purpose or _meaning_ behind it, because that’s not really what coincidence means.”

“Right with you on that one,” Harry’s saying, although his voice is even quieter now.“Like…if most of everyone realized that, it wouldn’t be so hard for people to let people go, you know.Like no matter how significant something might… _feel_ , life is just different crazy shit happening at the same time.”He finishes with a bit of a laugh, although it sounds only faintly forced, as though seeking approval from Louis and checking if he'd agree.

Louis only lets his eyes open to a small degree again, feeling like he’s floating through space since he’s still recovering from his high and laying here like this.“Yeah.”

They fall into serene silence after that, Harry and his body heat and his heavy legs close next to Louis as Louis just takes everything in and keeps himself right in the present, appreciative of his own breaths, and his own view, and his own sensations. 

“I could sleep out here,” Harry’s just about whispering after a while.

Louis lets out an easy exhale.“Me too.”

“I just don’t trust you not to shove bugs into my ear while I sleep,” Harry’s adding cheekily, as he’s shifting where he’d been comfortably in the crook of Louis’ neck in order to sit up, Louis only shoving him by the arm and letting him know that he could harm him in his sleep _inside_ too.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

“Seriously,” Louis’ saying tonelessly, blinking at Harry who’s on the opposite side of the counter from him.

Louis had gotten started with his shift, even had to change on his own because Harry had claimed he needed to ask Robert about something and urged Louis to go on, and for about thirty minutes, Louis hadn’t seen him since then.He’d just accepted that the boy had disappeared somewhere, and proceeded to mind his own business as he served drinks and tried not to let the repetition of songs from all these work nights start to get to him.

But now, as he’s about half an hour into his shift and had been bringing a tray of empty glasses back over to the bar area, there’s a _new_ face behind the counter along with all the usual ones, donned in the standard black t-shirt and equally dark pants.

Fucking _Harry._ Dousing a glass with spraying water in order to clean it as he’d quirked up his lips at Louis’ approach.

“What?” Harry asks back.

“You changed jobs?” Louis asks.

“Yep.Robert told me I could test out working back here for a bit,” Harry replies pleasantly with a shrug.“I have no bartending license though so I can only pour water.”

“You’re practically useless then,” Louis tells him.

“Surprisingly Robert told me that too, but also that my face is too pretty to let go,” Harry replies, setting his palms on the surface, the music threatening to drown him out.“Apparently I have regulars here who like to look at me.”

Louis can’t possibly display any more displeasure at the boy through his rigid facial expression right now.“You _suck_ ,” he groans.“You know you’re so boring, right?”

“At least I’m not half naked.I get cold easily.You _know_ that.”

Louis just disregards the boy with an eye roll as he slides himself and the tray over to Trevor behind the counter in order to tell him the drinks he needs, not wanting to spare anymore attention to prude all-good church boy over here.

And surprisingly, he can still get through his hours just as successfully without Harry on the floor with him, which makes sense because they rarely even came in contact with each other when they were both on the floor anyway.Louis still makes a point of ignoring the boy’s existence whenever he’s having to communicate to someone next to him behind the bar counter.

It’s pretty chill when everything’s coming to a close at two a.m., the final rounds of customers filing out and Louis being left to pick up the extra tips off of the floor as he makes small talk with his peers about a particularly handsy woman and how that one guy had definitely gotten more drinks snuck for him after he’d been informed he’d hit a limit.

Louis isn’t really one for continuously bending down to scoop up money into his hands, especially since there are about four other helping hands on the floor tonight too as they’re getting everything gathered, so he takes the time to waltz his way over to Harry where the boy’s still behind the counter at the bar, looking like he’s supposed to be wiping it down, but really he’s just talking to Zayn who leans his elbows on it and keeps laughing about something from the other side.Louis doesn’t even know _when_ Zayn had shown up. He figures it probably happened at some recent point, since Louis had spent his last hour by a particularly kind table of women having their bachelorette celebration in the back corner of this club. 

But it’s good that Harry’s apparently given into Louis’ pressure to get Zayn to take them home tonight.Even though clearly Zayn’s helped himself to a drink or two.

“You guys having fun over here?” Louis asks, coming over and setting an elbow on the counter, his eyes just a bit slow blinking with both tiredness and the effects of a shot of tequila.

“Yeah, but don’t worry ’m not flirting with your boyfriend,” Zayn’s saying, his words only a _bit_ clumsy, but still more coherent than Louis had expected as Zayn drums his knuckles against the counter, his feet restless where he’s standing leaned against it. 

“Not my boyfriend” is coming out of Louis’ mouth just at the same time as Harry’s flashing a middle finger at his friend.

“Alright, suit yourselves,” Zayn says with both hands up, as though he’s being attacked.“We _were_ talking about you though.”

Louis’ eyebrows lower with just a bit of interest, although there’s a hint of uncertainty because he doesn’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing.He can never tell with Zayn.

“Zayn…” is all that Harry’s saying, but Zayn’s disregarding it with a wave of his hand.

“Harry was just telling me he wants you guys to kiss again but doesn’t know how to _askmmphph—"_

His words turn to mush even as Louis’ rising his eyebrows sky high, because Harry’s just _scrambled_ to reach over the counter in order to grip the boy by his head and cover his lips, preventing anything else form escaping as Zayn is whining underneath him.

“ _Zayn_ , shut _up,_ god,” Harry’s muttering, palm still tight over the boy’s mouth, his hesitant eyes coming back over to Louis.“He’s just tipsy, is all.”

“I can see.”

Zayn finally succeeds in shoving the boy’s hands off of him, Harry moving to sink his forehead into his palms where he has his elbows set on the counter, and Zayn making a face at Harry as though he doesn’t understand why he’s just been abused.

“ _Fine,_ you know, I’ll just…just wait in the car, if I'm gonna keep being attacked,” Zayn’s deciding, huffing and digging in his pocket for the keys as he backs away.“One of you two might have to drive though.I think."

Louis’ actually letting out a bit of a chuckle as the boy is departing, because it’s quite something to see, all-good and all-knowing Zayn being so stumbling and bubbly and buzzed.The grin still hasn’t left his face as he’s leaning on his hands against the counter and stepping right across from Harry, Harry finally picking his head up and releasing a breath as though trying to force himself to be casual.

“So what was he talking about?” Louis asks, tilting his head and fake serious.

“Oh, he was just being stupid,” Harry says with a shake of his head, his eyes bored.

Louis can’t help the way the disappointment shines through on his face, his brows drawn together expressively.“God you’re so spineless.”

“No I’m _not_ ,” Harry says defensively, standing up straighter and drumming his fingers against the surface, gesturing towards the direction of the boy who has long left.“He literally _is_ being stupid—he had obviously enjoyed a drink, Louis.This isn’t me being coy, like he’s actually out of his…”

He’s clearly sidetracked by Louis propping his arms up on the counter, making himself weightless as he’s getting his legs kicked over and finding himself upon the surface in one swift movement, scooting to sit right in front of the boy and practically having forced Harry to back up.

“…mind,” Harry finishes, one step back from Louis, who now sits upon the counter, right in the spot Harry had just had his palms leaned against.“Your ass is on the counter.”

“And I bet someone would pay good money to kiss the surface of it after I leave here,” Louis replies, using his swinging feet in order to reach out and poke the toe of his shoe at one of Harry’s legs, just trying to get him to come in close without actually telling him.

“I don’t really blame you for growing a big, cocky head with the way people treat you around here,” Harry says, taking one step close to Louis, but still treading lightly as he brushes a hand back through his hair with his right hand. 

“I think this place has _really_ opened me up to my assets that I didn’t even know I _had_ ,” Louis tells him, reaching out and pretending to pick something away from Harry’s hair, just to trick him into stepping in closer, now much more in Louis’ space as Louis is brushing the imaginary item away.

“Yeah?” Harry’s asking, although his voice is lower now, almost careful as though he doesn’t want it to sound shaky, Louis having gone from picking at his hair to now shamelessly carding four of his fingers through it.

“Mhm,” Louis replies, not even looking at the boy and rather at his hair as he plays with it, gently bunching it in his hands and using the hold to bring the boy in just a little bit closer.“You have assets too.Can’t believe you’re hiding yourself behind the counter.”

“Oh, I _know_ on that pole I’d be unstoppable,” Harry’s joking quietly, his head being made to tilt with the way Louis’ gripping onto his strands in order to move him, Louis finally bringing his eyes to Harry’s only to find Harry already looking into his.

“Kinda like it like this, though,” Louis continues, voice soft as a feather, Harry’s hands coming to rest on the counter again on the outside of Louis’ hips.Louis lets his eyes drop down to the boy’s lips briefly, thumbing at the boy’s scalp and holding him close.“Knowing I’m the only one who truly just like… _knows,_ you know?”

Harry’s shaking his head, his lips barely curving with it as Louis reaches his free hand down toward the boy’s pants, just getting his finger in a belt loop and pulling him in a smidge closer.“No, you’re not making any sense.”

“I am, your mind’s just too clouded by how badly you want me to kiss you right now,” Louis’ nearly just breathing, his voice barely there as he studies Harry’s mouth and nothing else.

Harry’s voice is even more nonexistent when he’s opening his mouth, as though conscious of how observant Louis is of his lips.“Guilty.”

“C’mere then,” Louis’ breathing, reaching his hand up for the boy's nape and even getting Harry’s head properly tilted for him, about two inches between their mouths now.

Although Harry’s a bit slow, he eventually sways forth right into the boy’s lips, their mouths pillowed against each other as Louis closes his eyes and grips his hair in place between his tender fingers. 

He feels Harry’s fingertips just coming to rest at his knees, Louis tilting his head and diving right back into him with eager lips that make every peck careful and fully drawn.It’s slow, and it’s _real_ , a lot realer than that first one they’d shared, where Louis was just testing the waters and seeing if there was something…there, perhaps.

But Louis’ tipsy enough and buzzed simply from the successful, fun night he’s had, that his mind isn’t even contemplating anything like that right now, just letting himself latch his lips onto the boy’s and breathe in his faint bitter scent, as though he’d gotten liquor spilled on him at some point tonight.And Harry just lets him lead the way, his soft, careful hands more gently rested upon Louis’ thighs as their chests are touching and Louis’ in control of the movement of his head by his glorious strands of hair.

Louis even tests out his amount of power when he’s lightly yanking on the strands just to pull the boy back an inch, his own lowly opened eyes just taking in the boy’s closed eyes, enamored breaths, and silent chase for their lips to meet again.So Louis grants him his wish.

Louis doesn’t even know how long they kiss, just languid and careful and barely open mouthed.Louis just knows that he wasn’t planning on stopping unless something stopped him.

“Hey.Platonic boyfriends,” cuts in the voice of Robert, even though Louis doesn’t _immediately_ react to it as he’s carrying out one last peck with Harry, the boy’s full lips just about cushioning his own.Louis’ then turning one barely raised eyebrow to his right and towards the man, Harry doing the same in front of him, even though he’s still intimately close as Louis’ caressing him at his nape.“Mind helping out with getting the floor clean?I promise you can get back to kissing right after it’s done.”

Louis can’t help but roll his eyes and be ready to kiss some more, turning back toward Harry in front of him who’s shying away from Louis’ touch now and even nudging his hand away (rude), chuckling halfheartedly and breathily and letting Robert know they’ll get right on it.

His cheeks are _inflamed_ right now as he’s not meeting Louis’ gaze and just walking towards the exit gate to the bar however, so Louis will let him off the hook.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

“No— _Louis_ ,” Harry’s huffing, right as Louis’ hand has aggressively intercepted his to touch the handle of the passenger door and he’s shoved the boy aside.

“I got here first, _plus_ I called shotgun, so _ha_ ,” Louis’ taunting him, pulling the door open and climbing inside, Harry huffing and taking his walk of shame toward the backdoor.

“Does it really matter who sits in the front?” Zayn asks, hands rested on the wheel and his head reclined back.By now they’ve been in the club for a considerable amount of time since Zayn had left to wait for them, what with making out and then having to close up a disastrously untidy club with the wild night they’d had, so it makes sense that the boy is a lot more sobered up.

“It’s a pride thing,” Louis replies as Zayn starts up the car.“There’s a _reason_ calling shotgun is even a thing, you know.It’s simply the superior seat.”

Zayn doesn’t bother to argue with him as he’s cruising down the road, the energy settling in the car as Louis blows air out of his lips and tries to remember where he’s heard this song before, the funky one that’s currently playing on the radio at a reasonable volume.

Suddenly Louis’ turning his chin over his shoulder, Harry having had his head boredly rested against the window, Louis not even knowing why he smirks at the sight of it.

“Fuck it, the front is boring,” Louis’ declaring with a tight grin as he instantly gets up to his feet and maneuvers recklessly in order to get to the back, all to the background noise of Zayn telling him to be careful, and whining that Louis’ just kicked him in the neck.

The boredom is vanished from Harry’s face once he’s being ambushed into a roughhousing he didn’t even consent to, Harry trying to wrestle the boy’s arms away through heavy, endless, tired giggles and Louis still attempting to get him into a chokehold as they’re noisily rolling over each other in the backseat in their comfortable post-work clothes.

“Be _careful_ back there, you guys,” Zayn says with exhaustion.

Louis’ voice is low and close to Harry’s nose once he’s finally got the boy pinned down tightly by his wrists where they’re laid against the backseat cushion, Harry still recovering from all the fun with curved lips.

“Ready to tap out, pretty boy?”

Harry only responds by a jerking motion to release himself and attempt to shove Louis’ face into his armpit, Louis fighting against it dramatically as he gasps for air, eventually pushing himself away from the boy with strong hands against his waist—which fires back on him, because the momentum of it sends Louis right into the floor of the car where he’s squeezed there, Harry just about wheezing with chuckles by now.

He’s sure Zayn says _something_ else within the realm of trying to get them to settle down, but Louis can’t bring himself to care whilst he’s scrambling for a grip of the boy’s pajama pants in order to see if he can bring the boy down with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can u tell im a gallavich stan


	6. Chapter 6

They always come back to this.It’s probably considered their “roots” at this point.

Just sitting there, side by side on Louis’ couch, except the usual bowls of ice cream are swapped out for blowing bubbles, Louis having discovered he’d had the little containers hidden in the crevices of one of his old shoe boxes.So they’re entertaining themselves with dipping their little sticks into them and watching the bubbles float through the air with fascination, all while mindless television continues in front of them.Louis’ pretty sure these moments are the closest he ever comes to not having a brain.It’s awesome.

They’re sidetracked slightly when the show is being interrupted for one of those annoying, warning signal tests or whatever that take over the entire television and harsh Louis’ mellow.Although one wouldn’t be able to tell by the way he and Harry just keep their eyes following a single bubble that Harry’s just blown, seemingly hypnotized and both glowing from the television.

The absence of regular background noise _does_ allow Louis to think though.Stupid brain.

“We gotta move on from that job,” he’s saying, setting his stick back in its container with a bit of a splash.

“Yeah?You ready?” Harry’s asking from beside him, and just that tone of his voice.It’s bordering on like…caring, somewhat.Like it’s Louis’ decision and he’s up for whatever makes him comfortable.Disgusting.

“Yeah, the music’s starting to irk me.And I also started to feel self-conscious about eating so many ice cream sundaes—“

“Thinking of how it’ll make your body look, I was thinking that _too_ ,” Harry replies, almost in wonder at how their thoughts align.“I just want to eat ice cream in peace.”

“Same,” Louis replies with an easy sigh, digging into his container again and bringing the stick up to his face, just inspecting the soapy liquid contained in the circle.

There’s some more silence, although they’re both clearly on the same page and in agreement.Louis only speaks up again with an afterthought, shrugging and blowing out a tiny bubble.

“Plus I’d kinda told Rami I’d let him fuck me, so,” Louis continues casually, referring to one of the servers they work along with.“Like… _really_ sold it to him our last shift, although I wasn't actually _going_ to.Just wanted to bum a smoke.”

“God, the things you do for weed.”

“My weakness,” Louis admits, reaching out a finger and popping one of Harry’s larger bubbles that floats between them.He shifts so that he just has one leg stretched out on top of Harry’s knees and upon his lap.“We have enough money to kinda fuck around a bit without a job.”

“Yeah,” Harry replies with a nod, taking a break from the bubble blowing as he rests his head back, his face tilted in Louis’ direction.“So what now?”

Louis brings his thumb up to his lips, shrugging one shoulder.“I dunno.Why do I have to choose all the time?”

“I chose the baseball idea.”

“Which blew up in our faces immediately—oh, _now_ I know why I choose all the time,” Louis declares with a cheeky smile and a patronizing push at the boy’s shoulder.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Tonight has been delightful, to say the least.

He and Harry have made themselves comfortable at one of the grand, circular tables for eight with the draping, elegant white cloth hanging from it.They’ve engaged in interesting conversation with the people around them, and have also been served a _fine_ selection of assorted fruits, sliced hot breads of all different colors, different seasoned seafoods, the cutest little chicken sandwiches, and a good amount of endlessly poured red wine.And they haven’t even gotten to _dessert_ yet.

“How do you know the happy couple again?” Louis’ being asked by the quite prodding heavy set lady who looks as though she’s around her fifties, where she holds some barely coherent child on her hip, and words are still being spoken into a microphone somewhere where Louis doesn’t care.

Louis’ answering confidently as he’s using a fork to pick a piece of shrimp off of Harry’s plate.“Me and the newlywed wife go _way_ back, actually—“

“I thought you’d said you knew the groom.”The question is asked by a young couple to the right of them, not accusatory or hostile, just inquisitive and blinking as they hold hands over the table.

“Um—“ Harry cuts in, clearing his throat with a fist to his mouth.“It was actually like, _I_ know the groom, _he_ knows the bride, type of deal.”

Louis tries not to make any kind of face at how idiotic that sounds as he simply grins and finishes chewing up his shrimp.“Separately.Because that makes sense.”

“God, what are the odds of _that_?” the female half of the couple is laughing delightedly with, turning to her guy.“Them two becoming friends and not even knowing they knew mutual people.”

“Oh, we’re not friends,” Louis cuts in, shaking his head with a wrinkle between his brows.“We’re very much married.”

There _had_ been other more murmured conversations going on at the table, but _everything_ seems to go silent now as eyes are flitting towards them, Louis just grateful that every other table is continuing to be normal around them, paying attention to the groom and bride sharing a dance up front like they’re supposed to.

“Oh, I’m,” the lady begins, every trace of cordiality gone from her blank face.“Sorry.I didn’t see a ring.”

“Because this one is a _nuisance_ and accidentally dropped his down the drain,” Harry’s saying with a groan and a shake of his head, roughing up Louis’ left shoulder.He then flutters his bare fingers as he continues.“So I took mine off.Just so he’d stop feeling so bad every time he saw it.”

Louis turns toward Harry with sparkling eyes, his grin appearing lovingly admiring, but really only curved because of how funny this is, how easily Harry plays along.

“And don’t I just have the _sweetest_ husband,” Louis coos, reaching out a finger and swiping under the boy’s chin fondly, Harry’s dimples deepening on each side as he runs his eyes up and down Louis’ face.

They’re only met with a really loud cough from the older lady who had asked the initial question, followed by another murmur about how they had no _idea_ the couple (whose names are apparently Brandy and Braxton—what a horrible sounding pair) was friends with “people like them”.

Which is to be expected.Because he and Harry have just gone and wedding crashed an incredibly religious, traditional Catholic wedding reception that’s going on at some hotel.And they’re having a _blast_ in their tasteful trousers and pristine collared shirts and cuffed black blazers they’ve dug out of the depths of their wardrobes.They’ve even come up with fake names, Louis being _Zachary_ and Harry being _Jason_.

“Hey, you know what?You might wanna murmur a bit more _quietly_ over there,” Louis’ saying, tilting his head in order to see past Harry and towards the lone middle aged man who had whispered that to what looks like his friend.“We are _very_ loved in the eyes of He who _matters,_ and not interested in being judged by anyone else.Come on, sweetheart,” he’s saying, already getting up to his feet and sliding his fingers in between the fingers on Harry’s hand.“Let’s go mingle.”

And so mingle they _do_ , although Harry had spent a good five minutes whining about how he wanted to stay at the table for the serving of the dessert cake.Harry’s complying anyway and being guided around by Louis’ fingers interlaced with his, just walking right up to people and making conversation about the piano music, or how great the food is, or providing commentary on the actual wedding ceremony (which they didn’t go to, which makes it all the more funny), and of course the hottest topic, how they even know the groom and bride.Their story literally changes with every person they talk to, not that either of them care anyway since they’re still helping themselves to glasses of wine.

What’s also quite amusing are the constant eyes, just _sinking_ right into their joined hands everywhere they go, the strangers even silently looking terrified when Louis and Harry are approaching them for simple, tipsy conversation.A lot of people are pretty subtle with their homophobia though, just simply letting them know their relationship is “…interesting” or that they knew a gay person once.It’s actually quite an experience, Louis comes to realize, seeing the world through a gay person’s eyes.They deal with a lot of bullshit.

One person is pretty blatant with what they feel, however, and it comes in the form of a man who’d been stood with his family, the mother being nice enough as she’d somewhat held her arms around her kids, but the dad just giving it to them straight.

“Your partnership isn’t recognized as a real marriage, no matter what wedding you had,” the father is saying.“Marriage is sacred between a man and a woman.”

Louis’ not really thrown by this, both because he’s buzzed and also because he literally is not fazed in the least bit by close-minded people who probably have an IQ lower than his.

So he does the very mature thing of pressing his palm against his mouth with fear and shock, biting back a full on laugh.“ _Oooh,_ did you hear that, Jason darling?” Louis asks, turning to Harry and finding Harry just as falsely thrown with twitching, open lips and a melodramatic hand to his chest.“We’re not _actually_ married.”

“Yeah, not until _this_ guy approves of it, apparently,” Harry replies, his voice hushed as they talk as though he isn’t even right there.

“Yep, that’s what he said,” Louis replies with a frown, lifting his hand that’s joined with Harry’s in between them.

Harry’s brows crease with his dramatic pout, the boy bringing their hands up so that he can press his lips against Louis' knuckles as he speaks and makes puppy dog eyes.“Then what’ve we been doing all this time then Zachary?”

“I dunno, I guess the outside venue spring themed wedding, the certified priest—best on this side of the country, actually—the honeymoon in the Bahamas, the five years of joint happiness and devotion, all of those things were _fake_.”

“Oh, don’t forget the document we signed, with our official signatures and everything,” Harry adds matter-of-factly, stroking his thumb against Louis’ hand.“And our loving home, where we raise a Bombay cat.”

“Yeah— _that_ too,” Louis replies, trying not to cheese too hard at Harry simply voicing his fantasies.“Speaking of that, love you _did_ remember to prepare a bowl for our darling before we left out, yes?”

“Yes, of course Zachary.Our sweet Fluffy should be good for a bit,” Harry responds, dimples showing back up as he simply nuzzles his nose against Louis’ knuckle.

Louis inches forward to grant Harry a brief touch of their foreheads for a moment of intimate coziness, before he’s turning back to the man who they’d been initially speaking to, everyone in the family looking blank in the face, although the father’s more furrowed at the brows and irritated than anything.

“Do you approve of us now?” Louis asks simply, blinking prettily as he and Harry’s hands swing back down to their side.

“We’re so sorry, we’ll leave you guys be,” the wife is starting, her husband scoffing as she gathers her boy and girl even more.

“No, we’ll walk away first,” Louis cuts in quite quickly, his grin still overly polite as he pulls Harry along, before proceeding to speak over his shoulder.“You guys are quite boring.”

And Harry’s giggling as he gets pulled right along with him, Louis’ feet already having been situated to head straight towards the bar as his palm feels warm against the boy’s.

“The _Bahamas?”_ Harry asks, huffing and smiley right against Louis’ ear as he ducks in.“Didn’t know your place of vacation would be so cliché.”

“Shut up _Bombay Cat named Fluffy_ ,” Louis’ replying right back, waltzing up to the counter and setting an elbow upon it like he owns the place, right before he asks for two glasses of the strongest drink they’re serving on the rocks, _stat_.And it’s fucking _free._ The couple must be rich.

They’re hooking their arms around each other and actually making it a competition to down the glass as fast as they can once they’ve gotten it.Their competition happens quite sloppily as some stuff gets spilled around, and Harry chokes a bit, and people around keep fluttering their eyes over to them, just _wanting_ to say something, but trying to be polite.

“No— _no, no_ ,” Harry’s mumbling at some point, an inch from Louis’ face as his words slur a bit, his hands toying with Louis’ wrists and trying to advance him backwards on his feet.“ _You_ are gonna slow dance, mister.”

“Over my dead _body_ love,” Louis’ replying just as sloppily, his lips shiny and curved as he’s getting arms wrapped around Harry’s waist and walking him backwards, _away_ from the direction of the dance floor that’s full with various disgusting couples who are dying to get married next.

“Can’t believe I have a _husband_ who won’t _slow dance_ with me,” Harry’s saying hysterically, actually drunk enough to be a little loud as he’s whimpering against Louis’ ear while he’s being walked backwards.“I bust my _ass_ for you and the cat, _day in_ and _day out_ —“

“Alright Harold, you need a little breather, don’t you?” Louis’ laughing, still a little drunk, but clearly not as _much_ as Harry as he’s prying the boy off of him in order to grip him by the bicep now, people _definitely_ beginning to shamelessly watch their drunken display as they’re stumbling past everyone.

They find themselves stepping out past the open double doors of the reception hall, more in the hallway of things as Harry’s laughing about how funny it is that they don’t know a single person here.

“Part of _wedding crashing_ is not letting it be _known_ that we don’t know anyone,” Louis tells him, walking backwards now as he continues to pull the boy by the wrist, the thin, patterned carpet at their feet as they’re stumbling upon the quieter and more general areas of the hotel, the wedding reception feeling like a distant, bigoted universe now.

“Oh, okay,” Harry’s agreeing, bringing his finger to his lips and going _shhhh_ , their foreheads coming to touch again as Louis comes to a stop towards a wall in the midst of the vastly large hotel hallway.

“Can I tell you something though?” Louis’ asking quietly, Harry’s finger still between their close faces and faintly brushing against Louis’ lips.

“Yeah, you can tell me anything, Zachary,” Harry’s saying just as gently.

“Okay, because, like,” Louis’ mumbling, grinning as he turns toward a small break in the wall he sees that leads to some vending machine area they can turn into, Louis already moving his feet toward it and pulling Harry along behind him by the wrist.“I really have to tell you something, Jack—um, Jason, I mean.”

“What, is it a secret?” Harry’s asking, once Louis’ reached a small spot where he can get his hands around Harry’s waist and walk him back into an ice machine.

“Fuck yeah—“ Louis’ cutting himself off as he walks himself right into Harry’slips, the heavy _mmm_ sound Harry’s immediately making into it vibrating Louis’ lips beautifully.

And Harry actually _touches_ him, gets a warm arm snuck around Louis’ waist and jerks him right in with nowhere to move, their lips vigorous against each other and Louis getting his first full taste of Harry’s tongue, massaged against his own and endlessly sweet with lemon lime from the brandy cocktail.

It’s as though everything just sort of flows together in one motion within Louis’ merry, fluffy mind, because first he’s just pressing himself into Harry in this secluded area in the middle of some high end hotel, and then he’s pushing Harry on his back in a queen sized bed in the middle of some high end hotel room.

They’ve already done away with their outer layers, practically having ripped them off once they’d stumbled into the place after impulsively and _speedily_ approaching the front desk in the lobby in order to inquire about an available room to purchase.Louis’ now just in the silky half transparent white button down he’d had on under his blazer, Harry’s in the thin, loose cashmere sweater he’d been wearing under his sport coat, they’ve already long gotten their shoes kicked off, and Louis’ just got the boy almost sunk into the bed with how he’s kissing him and bringing his body down to meet him, the both of them properly breathless as he grips the boy’s jaw between two hands and Harry keeps making these _humming_ sounds that Louis’ obsessed with.

Louis’ got his knees on either side of the boy’s hips as he runs both hands down his chest, just fervent to touch him and feel him as he licks a flat tongue against the boy’s bottom lip.Harry’s hands have only been barely treading upon the bare skin at Louis' waist, the boy just taking the kisses that Louis presses down into him with full lips and an awaiting tongue, his hair cascading around him.

Louis cements his chest to the boy’s as their lips drag together, reaching down in order to get a hand hooked under one of Harry’s thighs in order to pull him along when he’s getting onto his own back, Harry blowing his stuttered breath of surprise in between them as Louis’ getting the boy properly on top of him and their positions are successfully switched.

“I’ve uh,” Harry’s breathing during a break between their joined lips, their mouths ghosting each other as Louis is thumbing at his thigh.“Never”—another searing kiss to the corner of his mouth from Louis—“Like, _done_ anything like this bef—“

“Yeah me neither,” Louis’ replying hurriedly and just as breathy, his eyes and lifted head still chasing the boy’s lips.“So—“

“We can just like, like just stick to kissing right now?” Harry’s asking, an eyebrow quirking up as he just keeps himself braced against the pillows on either side of Louis’ head.

“Yeah, ’s fine,” Louis’ panting with several nods, Harry nodding right back before he’s latching his lips onto Louis’ again, Louis sinking his head back down to the pillows as he runs his hand up the back of the boy’s thigh and only staying about an inch shy of his ass.

Their lip locking is fumbling just a bit when Louis can’t help the little bout of laughter that escapes his lips right in the middle of their kissing, Harry pulling back an inch and searching his face with question.

“God, I just never imagined I could find a guy so…” Louis begins, trying to find the word as he breathes the close boy in and runs eyes from his lips down to his torso.“… _hot_.That’d have to be the word here.”

Harry’s dimple is showing in his right cheek, Louis absolutely adoring it as his eyes come sparkling back up to Harry’s. 

Louis reaches up and roughs up the boy’s untamed hair a bit, his strands more unkempt and flying than usual.“Maybe it’s the hair,” Louis says cheekily.“It’s sorta like a girl’s.Maybe that’s what’s confusing my mind.”

Harry tries with an unamused facial expression as he tilts his head at Louis, now sat back on his heels upon Louis’ lap as he brushes a hand back and through his hair, shaking it up a bit. 

“Sometimes I think the same thing with your ass,” Harry retorts, Louis dropping his lips open.

“Who gave you permission to stare at my ass?” Louis asks with a taunting tilt of his head.

“All those nights at Club Diamond and you think my eyes never wandered?” Harry’s practically purring, floating down into Louis again and bringing a bold palm to slide under his thigh and up to his left ass cheek, pulling him flush a bit as he grips the flesh through the material of his trousers and lays over Louis with his hair now peacefully rested on Louis’ forehead. 

“You had to see what all the hype was about?” Louis’ teasing softly, eyes floating down to the boy’s full lips.When Harry’s simply nodding, entranced by Louis’ face with his low eyelids and parted lips, keeping their hips close with a palm to Louis’ ass, Louis’ breathing “c’mere”.

Harry’s smiling into their kiss as he dives right in, Louis relishing the warm breaths from the boy’s nose as he lets his head move with the chase of it, sliding his hands up behind Harry’s waist warmly and already prepared to get the boy on his back again.

And that’s how they just start…kissing.

Of course, they’d already kissed twice _before_ that, but _this_ is what marks it becoming a much more routine thing—not routine like, little pecks in greeting or sweet and cutesy smooches before bed but just like, they get into the rhythm of full on making out, Louis pretty sure the proper term is sucking each other’s faces.

It’s almost always initiated by Louis, Harry being too much of a wuss to take matters into his own hands.That’s why Louis’ practically forced to do things like stop the boy right before they’re about to get into his car from the gas station market at about one a.m. where they’d just gotten some snacks, turn him around by his shoulder, and press the boy into the car behind him as he gets their lips meshed together, just weaving in and out of each other’s mouths in a damn near empty gas station parking lot, very susceptible and vulnerable to muggers.

It’s what forces Louis to do things like touch his knee to the boy’s when they’re on his couch, just having gotten done watching another so-called “classic” ( _Inception_ ), Louis simply asking him what they should do next, Harry growing those bug eyes and looking down at his lap claiming he doesn’t know, and Louis just pulling the boy in by the strings of his hoodie and kissing him there, making Harry to sink onto his back along the length of the couch as he licks down into the boy’s mouth. 

And Louis doesn’t care where he does it either.Life is short.If he feels like kissing the boy, he’s going to kiss the boy, whether it’s right at Louis’ front door when Louis’ opening the door for him and Harry hasn’t even said anything yet, or ambushing the boy in his own apartment at three a.m. claiming he needed something, or when they’re laid in the grass at who-knows- _what_ hour of the night, talking about nonsense bullshit that won’t matter in a year or so.And the only place Harry’s rejected him so far is in line at the grocery store, which.Fair.

As always, Harry’s just instantly complying, always initially making that faint little hum of surprise and just _barely_ touching Louis, as though he’s afraid or something.He evolves to be just a bit more touchy feely as they progress, his curious, faintly brushing hands slowly turning into ones that envelope Louis’ back, or tug at Louis’ hair.

Or even now, fully palm and grip the flesh at Louis’ ass over his briefs, which is something Louis _knows_ the boy’s been wanting to do.

Louis guesses it’d been a bit harder to resist since Louis’ only in his boxer briefs and ripped sweatshirt that he wears to bed right now, having gotten his knees kicked up to straddle the boy when Harry’d been in the middle of talking about his opinion on fracking.

“Finally going there, huh?” Louis’ breathing into his ear, lips now suctioning against the side of the boy’s neck as he takes in the boy’s hot panting against his ear.

Harry doesn’t even respond, just keeps his hands gripped there and feeling it out like it’s made of gold, bringing his forehead back to connect with Louis’ in order to prevent him from saying any other words with an open mouthed kiss, their tongues meeting a hair before their lips. 

Louis doesn’t know what exactly drives him to take it a step further tonight, maybe it’s Harry’s hands against his ass, maybe it’s the fact that he can faintly feel the boy’s boner, just barely grazing his own crotch, maybe it’s the fact that he hasn’t had sex in a while, but he’s definitely reaching down for the hem of the boy’s shirt, fully prepared to pull it off and over his head.

Harry complies, of course, although it turns into just a bit of an impatient giggle with the struggle it takes to get it off over his head and flailing hair, Louis definitely commenting on how giant his head is.

It’s not like Louis hasn’t seen Harry shirtless before.They pretty much got changed within a few feet of each other everyday at Club Diamond.

But it’s…different now. Because maybe they’re attracted to each other, or something.Louis doesn’t fucking _know_.All he knows, is Harry’s making these stupid, teasingly innocent wide eyes at him as he moves forward to press warm lips against Louis’ bare collarbone where his draping sweatshirt allows it to show, blinking all pretty and clueless, and Louis definitely just wants to fuck him.

“I know we’re all hot and bothered right now…” Harry’s breathing into his collarbone, Louis feeling the faint, warm huffs of his soft laughter.“But I hope you still realize that I have no idea what I’m doing, so…”

“ _Awww….”_ Louis’ cooing, ducking his head down to catch the boy at his forehead again, settling down a bit from where he’d been on top of the boy’s lap and just sitting down on the mattress between his legs now. “Is Harry getting nervous?”

“No, I…” Harry begins, although he seems to lose his words as Louis’ running a hand down his chest, stopping to pinch one of his nipples between his fingers a bit as he studies the boy’s body, which is just barely seen with the distant moon through the windows being the only source of light. 

Harry actually doesn’t even finish that thought, Louis not caring either way once he’s lowering his head, scooting his hips in just a bit more and bringing his tongue to work at the boy’s nipple, just teasing and barely touching as he circles it and lets Harry’s shuddered breaths fall from his mouth above him.Louis’ done this before.He knows how to do this.

As Louis’ lapping over the nipple and taking the time to gently suck it into his mouth and between his teeth, he definitely sees out of the corner of his eye, the boy’s fist bunching in the sheets as he tries to contain himself.

Louis can’t help the quiet little chuckle of amusement he blows against Harry’s nipple, coming back up and thumbing at the side of the boy’s neck.Harry’s eyes are fully closed now, Louis studying the lids of them, and his nose, and his parted lips.

“Are you hard right now?” Louis asks in a whisper, just to see if he’d lie as he’s licking his own lips.

Harry’s brows are furrowed just a bit as they’re close enough to breathe air into each other.“Kinda.”

“Can I feel?”

Harry doesn’t even respond, just nods once, so subtle that Louis could’ve missed it if he wasn’t watching closely.Instantly there’s a surge of whirring in Louis’ gut, the same sensation that Louis gets before hookups, when he has sex flashbacks, just pure _lust_ as he’s moving his hand slowly in order to get it down between them.

He simply presses a careful hand to the front of the boy’s sweatpants, Harry immediately drawing in a breath and fisting the sheets some more as Louis faintly bites at his own bottom lip.

And yeah…he’s hard.Really hard, actually.It even brings Louis to cup him just a bit more, his hand pressing into Harry’s hard-on more fully as the boy is faintly mouthing the word “ _fuck_ ” where it’s breathed out of his mouth.

Louis just sinks right back into his lips as he palms him there, Harry’s fingertips immediately coming to his jaw as he’s pushed back to rest against the headboard.They’re simply tasting each other with no rush, both filled to the brim with a desire that neither of them know how to tread upon.

Soon Harry’s getting his own curious hand down in between them too, just bringing his palm to Louis’ briefs as well, and _duh,_ Louis’ hard.He’d pretty much need to meet with a doctor immediately if he wasn’t hard at this point. 

So they just…kiss like that.Languidly and lax in the dark silence of Louis’ bedroom, the only sounds being their wet lips and meshing tongues as they breathe shakily and faintly into each other’s mouths at different points because of the way their hands and fingers just gently coax at one another’s hard ons.

And even though it’s just a bit of torture, not getting to see the _orgasm_ at the end of it all, it’s definitely a step up from what they’ve been doing, which is making out wildly, and then treading very lightly when it came to doing anything else.This is definitely progress.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

“Now _that…”_ Niall’s declaring, right after having taken a bite out of one of the taquitos.“Tastes like shit.How do we even fuck up taquitos?”

“Well, for starters, getting the cheap cheese at the grocery store, _Harry_ ,” Louis’ saying pointedly, tilting his head over at the boy, who’s been at the other end of the kitchen toying with the bluetooth speaker and in his own world.

“ _Burning them_ also doesn’t help either,” the boy’s replying, not even granting Louis his eye contact.“I knew we should’ve put Niall on oven duty.”

“You know, me and Niall have been doing this every now and then for months,” Louis’ saying matter-of-factly, taking a piece from the nearby plate and leaning his back against the counter comfortably.“And we’ve never had a cooking from scratch experiment that didn’t turn out delicious.So I wonder what’s holding us back now.”He takes a bite out of it anyway, just because even at its worst, a taquito is still edible by default.

“No—remember?” Niall’s laughing, mouth full for a moment as he chews.“That macaroni burger was horrible.”

Louis’ breaking into laughter a bit as he remembers it, the both of them having been so high at work and so fueled by the munchies that they’d wanted to try something outlandish and different.It’d turned out to be more of a disgustingly gooey, unevenly cooked mess, but they still licked the plate clean anyway after they were done.“That—that _was_ a pretty bad one, yeah.”

“God, we used to have a shit ton of fun at work,” Niall’s claiming, roughing up Louis’ arm as Louis rolls his eyes.

“You’re blinded by fond memories right now.That burger place has and always will suck.”

“Nope, I’m pretty sure we’d have jokes and laughs about the most random shit every day there.Your ass even got away with doing whatever you wanted,” Niall’s claiming, leaning an elbow against the counter by Louis, blocking out the view of Harry as the boy’s seemingly scrolling through songs on his phone to choose.Niall’s voice is just a level lower when he speaks again, although it already helps that whatever pop rock song Harry’s chosen to play is loud enough anyway.“Now you’ve left me for this one though”—he barely tilts his head towards Harry—“which is okay.I guess I should’ve put a ring on it.”

“There’s no _ring_.”

“You sure?” Niall asks, genuine confusion in his brows as Louis sighs and pulls a string of cheese away.“He was literally flirting with you the whole time we were cooking. It's like you two are playing house, or something.”

Louis’ eyebrows quirk up just a bit, because he definitely hadn’t gotten a vibe of that at all tonight.He’d just thought it was a normal night of rolling up flour tortillas, and mixing up beef and cheese, and calling the boy an endless plethora of names, and telling him to shut up most of the time he spoke.

“Listen…” Niall’s beginning, and the switch of tone from somewhat casual and joking to more real, and sincere with the lowness of it, already has Louis rolling his eyes again and granting the boy his bored gaze.“If like…if he _likes_ you or something.You might wanna let him know pretty soon if you don’t return those feelings.Because, I mean…you’re always pretty verbal about how there’s nothing like…felt, or going on…” It’s clear he’s being extremely careful with his quiet words, Louis actually growing a bit impatient with his heavy lidded eyes.“And definitely _you’ve_ never been into, like—“

“Who am I to rob myself of being drooled at and catered to?” Louis replies simply, with a curving grin and pretty blinking eyes, Niall already scoffing.“He answers my every beck and call, you know.”

“I’ve _noticed_ ,” Niall’s saying, just a bit awed at it.“That’s why, like—don’t you…think it’s kind of fucked up, if you don’t, return…yet you’re stringing him along?”He still appears as though he can’t quite get his thoughts across, probably because he’s trying to do the straight guy thing of tip toeing in order to not be offensive.He’s finally releasing a breath and setting a hand on Louis’ shoulder.“I just don’t want this to turn into a shitshow.I know a lot of your _life_ now consists of this boy, and if it turns into a shitshow, that could really suck.”

A wisecrack, or an inappropriate joke, or an insensitive remark is on the tip of Louis’ tongue, but Louis eventually discards it, because this is simply his friend.Caring about him.Looking out for him.And going by what he already knows about Louis, which is that he fucks girls, and that there’s nothing going on between him and Harry, and that he doesn’t get attached to anything, because attachments are stupid and won’t matter in the long run.

“Got it,” Louis’ just about mouthing with one nod.

They share another warm moment of understanding gazes, Niall nodding once right back at him as some guitar melody echoes throughout the apartment, and then the boy’s patting him where he’d had a hold on his shoulder and reaching for his jacket that’s splayed upon the counter.

“Well, I’ll wish you guys a good night, since I assume Harry isn’t going home,” the boy’s saying, stepping back and directing his words to the entirety of the kitchen as he’s shrugging his jacket on.

“You’ve assumed right,” Harry tells him with a smile as he walks up.“This has been a fun night of fucking up one of the easiest dishes known to man.We should do it again sometime.”

“We should,” Niall’s replying simply, looking towards Louis again with just a quietly _knowing_ look as he rubs at his back and grins at Harry.“This one makes a great addition to the cooking duo.”

And then he’s leaving with his parting words, and closing the front door behind himself, and Harry’s stood a few feet shy of Louis, preoccupied with checking one of his hair strands for split ends.

“What was that?” Louis asks suddenly, quietly as he quirks an eyebrow up where he stands leaned back against the counter, his palms spread on the surface behind him.

Harry’s blinking at him as he’s letting go of his hair and shoving his hands into the central front pocket of his hoodie.“I didn’t say anything.”

“You did too,” Louis’ replying, pressing his palms down in order to lift himself away from the counter, taking a step towards the boy as Harry’s dumb grin is just beginning to sprout.“You said you want me to press you up against this counter right now and eat your face.”

“Did not— _Louis_ ,” the boy’s saying in a squeaky laugh once Louis’ shuffling up to him and getting his hands scooped up under the boy’s thighs, just barely lifting him into the air as he walks him backwards.Despite his state of being startled, one of Harry’s arms is coming to trap Louis in behind his neck as Louis’ moving to properly lift him up against the counter, already attaching his lips right to Harry’s skin at the crook of his shoulder. 

Louis’ hands have a mind of their own as his lips are attached to the boy’s skin, one of Harry’s legs locking Louis in behind his waist, and one of Louis’ hands doing up a side of the boy’s hoodie, pushing the fabric all the way up to bunch near his neck in order to breathe and tongue at his bare chest.

“ _Woah—_ um.”

The sound of a voice that’s _neither_ of theirs startles the both of them, Louis almost breaking his neck with how quickly he turns his head towards the sound of Niall’s words, already feeling Harry’s abrupt scramble to push himself down from the counter as the boy bumps into him.

There the boy is, the front door just a tad open behind him as he’s reaching for his phone where it’s on the nearby coffee table, the both of them not even having heard him open the front door.

And there is no mistaking the hugeness to his eyes that are wholly caught off guard.Louis’ literally never seen his eyes so uncertain and giant like this before.

“I’d just—forgot—I’d forgot my phone,” the boy’s saying, Harry still slowly puling his hoodie down as Louis’ just been cemented in place with no discernible facial expression.“Sorry.”

Soon the boy is out the door again, the thing is closing behind him, and even though there’s still music floating through their surroundings, there’s an unmistakable silence of an excruciating nature.

“Fuck, that was awkward,” Harry’s saying with a heavy release of breath, the boy running a hand down his face as Louis simply furrows his eyebrows at his own feet.“He saw one of my nipples.”

Louis’ not really concerned with replying to the boy right now as he has his head down and his thumb between his teeth and he’s just thinking.Just thinking, having a lot of thoughts, maybe contemplating the fact that he’d told Niall several times that they’d never done anything, and has now just been proven a liar.

“I think our sexy moment has passed,” Louis’ saying matter-of-factly, bringing his eyes back up and nodding at the boy, whose cheeks are proper red right now.

“Yeah, I agree,” Harry’s replying, smoothing a hand down the side of Louis’ arm and then moving past him in order to get things cleaned up, because that’s what he does.He cleans up around here, and he _stays_ around here, and he just fucking lives here more than half the time and _why does he do that_?

Louis doesn’t bother asking in this moment though, instead just moving to work right alongside the boy to get things tidy, granting him a cordial grin when the boy’s eyes are sparkling over to him, because Louis rarely ever cleans anything.

And he goes to bed with Harry, just like almost every other night, and he snuggles into him, which is actually a recurring event in more recent nights, simply because Louis felt he might as well make the most of the fact that Harry doesn’t know anything about personal space and regularly ends up being close enough to crush his esophagus.So one time Louis just wrapped his arms around the boy’s waist, and they’ve never gone back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know if anyone's still reading & if i shud continue to update :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **trigger warning for sexual assault and violence**

“Huh.And you were worried about _me_ sliding us into escort territory,” Louis’ saying, right as they’ve reached the venue they’d been headed to tonight.

Everything is seeming as though it’s shining in glass and champagne and oxfords as people mingle and a live band is playing jazzy music and the atmosphere is quite posh.

This could maybe be called a bar of some sort, although Louis thinks that would be an abomination considering there’s no dancing, or getting fucked up, or bass heavy trash music blasting anywhere.There’s only clinking glasses, and low lighting in what feels like the color silver, and murmuring conversations, and the smell of _rich_ that’s a bit bittersweet to Louis as servers are weaving in and out of people with platters and cocktails—these ones being fully _clothed_ in white button downs and gray slacks.

Harry had pitched that they could come here and see if they could potentially "network" some new ways to make money, the boy claiming whatever night is going on tonight at this particular bar is for the more “opulently wealthy” people in town, Harry having known this from his short and long-ago part time job at the winery right across the street from it, having watched the shiny people coming in and out of that place every night in their red bottoms, and their diamond encrusted wallets, and their lack of day jobs. Their plan is to possibly make some easy money based on other people's stupidity, and also maybe they could get some connections from these people while they’re here and secure other ways of making more money while lifting less fingers, which is what the 1% are _great_ at.

And it _definitely_ looks like this is the place for _something_ like that as every younger person here seems to be paired and closely engaged with someone who looks double their age, Louis figuring this might as well be a sugar daddy convention. Which makes sense, because he and Harry didn't even have to pay, as though they're the hot girls at some college party, or something.

“This is _different_ ,” Harry’s saying in response to Louis, grabbing two glasses from a tray that’s being offered to them, and turning to give one to Louis as Louis blinks at him without a trace of amusement.“We don’t have to freeze to death, or be cheered on to get on a stripper pole— _plus_ , this crowd is like, _real_ rich.The money doesn’t even compare to Club Diamond.”

Louis’ tipping his glass into his mouth and taking the drink down, only grimacing a little bit, although he already knew rich people had bad taste in champagne.Champagne itself is a bit of a drag anyway too.

But, since Louis’ been the leader in most of their adventures as a duo, he figures he’ll let Harry lead the way this time.But _only_ this time.

"Okay, so what's our deal?" Louis begins, turning towards the boy in front of him, only seeing him in a slightly darker shade as the jazz music continues to play and people's steps continue to clink around them. "Like, which one of us is dying? Because you _know_ rich people love a good charity case."

Louis honestly wasn't _quite_ sure whether or not Harry would be effortlessly on board with that, so it's definitely a delightful sight when the boy's dimples are deepening on both sides before he's tipping his glass into his mouth, taking the large gulp out of it to numb himself up just a bit. Louis may or may not take this moment to give the boy, and his body, and his outfit a once-over, the both of them having gone for somewhat casually lush attire in their blouses, and Harry with the rings on his fingers and these dark jeans that are quite snug, and...tight, in Louis' opinion.

"You. Definitely you, because it would basically be kind of the truth with your horrid diet," Harry tells him, Louis rightfully parting his lips.

"Excuse _me_ , sir. Are you not always right next to me on the couch, stuffing yourself with junk food just as much?"

"Yes, but you see, _after_ that, when I'm home, I at least _try_ to fill myself with something useful." When Louis' opening his mouth to protest, Harry's smart enough to already beat him to it, adding "like vegetables."

Louis lets his eyes narrow, before finishing the rest of his drink pretty easily. "Okay, well now I don't wanna be the one dying. It's jinxy." The alcohol entering his system definitely gives him this faint feeling of coziness to Harry's bubbling laughter, the both of them probably not even realizing that they've completely disregarded their surroundings in order to just go back and forth with each other.

"We'll figure it out as we go," Harry replies with an easygoing nod.

“So…” Louis begins, grin creeping up one side of his lips as he steps toward the boy.“What shall our names be tonight?”

Harry’s lopsided grin is stretching just as coolly right back at him, the boy swishing around his drink in his glass and only darting his eyes toward Louis’ lips for half a second.“I think sticking with the wedding names tonight will avoid confusion.”He adds on after taking another gulp out of his glass, Louis’ gaze having followed his Adam’s apple.“But keep in mind, you can’t expect me to keep playing along with fake names the more I drink.”

Louis tilts his head at him fondly.“You _were_ a bit of a mess toward the end there at the wedding reception, huh?”

“Yes, I was,” Harry’s saying as he ducks his head and his dimpled face briefly, the both of them hardly realizing how lost in each other and tuned out of their environment they’re becoming.

That is, until they’re reminded of their environment when there’s the energy of someone approaching them from the side, the heat of another human being felt as Louis blinks and grants this guy his attention.

It’s an older man, hair gray, although it seems more like he’s dyed it that way prematurely since it’s so pristinely styled and flattering on his head.It’s clear an actual hairstylist had run a brush and a hairdryer through it.His dark suit is perfectly tailored, and the only thing shinier than his shoes are probably the floor.

“Sorry if I’m cutting into your conversation, I just couldn’t help from introducing myself,” he’s starting, his voice melodic and his hand sliding easily into his pocket, as though he owns the place, as though he owns their time, as though just because his Rolex is shining on his wrist, the world should stop for him. 

“For someone who’s introducing themselves you haven’t said who you are yet,” Louis says, more positioned towards him as he crosses his arms over his chest.

The guy actually lets out a bit of amused laughter, not even hiding the way he rolls his intimate eyes down Louis’ entire body, taking a step closer to their bubble and Louis not knowing why he wants to punch him in the face.

“Who I _am_ , is a person who wants to know your price,” he’s continuing, this time actually sliding a hand against Harry’s waist, Harry’s eyes pretty much flying open instantaneously at the touch of it. 

“Oh—um,” Harry begins, shying away from his touch as the guy lets his arm down.“We’re not—“

“We get paid three hundred dollars by the hour,” Louis tells him, sure of himself and determined as he raises his eyebrows at the man.“For our _time._ Whatever we choose to do with it.Starting as soon as you pay us.”

The guy looks just a bit thrown for a loop, although it also appears like Louis’ hostile bluntness impresses him in suggestive ways as the twitch is seen in his parted lips.Then he’s reaching one hand deeper into the pocket of his suit pants.

“When were you guys planning to get out of here?” he’s asking, now flipping through the wad of cash he’s pulled out of the wallet that was in his pants.

“I dunno,” Louis begins, shrugging and looking towards Harry (who’s just about gaping like a fish) and then inspecting his own empty glass.“We definitely wanted to hang out by the bar a bit first.Could use some more drinks.Right, Jason?”

Harry’s blinking between Louis and the man who looks at him with expectant eyes, three hundred dollar bills between two of his fingers, just waiting to be taken.

“Uh—yeah, yeah,” Harry’s stammering.“Drinks sound nice.”

“Lovely,” the guy's purring, taking one of Louis’ hands and placing the money in his palm before closing it.He’s now sliding a hand against _Louis’_ waist, coming in close and preparing to lead the way.“Just let me know what you guys want.”

Louis has to ignore Harry’s dubious, unsure eyes on the way to the bar counter, because coming to this place was _Harry's_ idea after all.

Also it’s fucking amazing, since they’ve already gotten paid three hundred dollars and haven’t even done anything as they now sit at the high swirly chairs next to each other, sip at martinis through straws, and shrug off this guy’s persistent compliments on Harry’s hair and Louis’ smell.

The guy is just a bit on the strange side though, but honestly, what else should they expect from a man who’s paying two younger boys just to give him attention right now.Louis’ not even sure if Harry’s noticed yet, but the man’s practically hypnotized and closely observant every time they’re sipping on their drinks, swallowing behind his closed lips with it.Little does he know Louis is literally never going to touch him sexually.

But Louis won’t lie.The more liquids he consumes, the more he doesn’t care.It’s sort of like the attention high from Club Diamond.There’s a certain _kick_ out of being drooled at _and_ being paid at the same time, having people simply demanding and praising his beauty with money in their hands.

“So you guys have fun together?” he’s asking at some point, right after Louis and Harry have raced each other to see who can finish their martini first (the both of them on their second glasses), resulting in Harry losing, then claiming that Louis cheated because he started before the count, and Louis attempting to shove the boy off of his seat as best as he can in his clumsy state.

“Um—“ Harry’s starting, still coming down from breathy, drunken laughter as he’s shoving Louis off of him by the forearms.“We find different things to do everyday.Like, um…”He scratches at his hair to look to Louis for direction.“The other day Zachary and I made a fort out of couch cushions and pillows.”

Louis reaches forth to place a hand on the boy’s knee, not even needing the man in front of them to _say_ it, since Louis will just say it for him.

“Darling.That’s not what he means,” Louis says lowly, an entertained air to his lips.

“…oh?” Harry’s saying, small as he turns toward the guy, still scratching a hole into his scalp.

“ _Aw._ He’s an innocent one isn’t he,” the guy’s purring, reaching out a bold hand and sliding his knuckles against the side of Harry’s face before tilting his face up with fingers up underneath his chin.He keeps a gentle hand at the boy’s jaw as he thumbs at the skin, Louis unsure of the reasoning behind the feeling of something very quietly burning inside of him as his eyes watch it.“I meant do you guys fuck often.”

Immediately there are these little bouts of what’s probably nervous laughter, Harry and his buzzed state just disheveled enough to not even know how to voice himself right now.

“Um, no—we really, like—“

“I’ll take this one, Jason,” Louis’ saying, using his words as an excuse to brush the guy’s hand out of the way and get his own hand along the side of Harry’s face in order to get Harry to look at him.Louis keeps his tender hand there as he blinks his pretty eyes up at the man who stands between them. Louis' been pretty aware of how this man hasn't moved to help himself to a seat, instead just opting to be stood near them in their personal space.“I’ll answer that, right after we get paid again, because”—he pauses to look at the nonexistent watch on his wrist—“pretty sure it’s been an hour since the first payment.”

“Focused, I like that,” the man’s replying with a smug grin as he’s digging into his left pocket again, flipping through his stack, and handing the money right over to Louis again, Louis having been waiting patiently, and Harry with a hesitant eyebrow up as though he still can’t believe this is even happening.

“To answer your question,” Louis begins, shifting a bit in his seat to get the cash into his back pocket, his hand having left Harry’s face.“We haven’t fucked.It’s um…it’s been more like—“

“Like lots of hot and heavy kissing, type stuff,” Harry finishes, one of his fingers wrapping around his hair.“Where, like…”. He appears to peek at Louis for direction again, but Louis doesn’t give him any, just genuinely wanting to know Harry’s take on what it is that they do.

“Where you _want_ to fuck each other?” the guy is asking before Harry can finish the thought himself.Even though the lights are dim in this establishment, Louis already knows Harry’s sporting a blush.

Louis slides down from his seat in order to stumble closer to Harry, placing both hands on his knees and clumsily giggly at his flustered nature.Louis’ literally never seen such a timorous appearance on him like this before.

“I apologize, Jason can be a bit shy sometimes,” Louis’ saying sweetly, even though Harry’s not meeting him back with the same cute grin. Louis shrugs it off anyway as he steps forward to hang off of the boy loosely with arms around his shoulders, the side of his head pressed against Harry’s.“What he _wants_ to say, is…if you’re lucky enough, you might get the answer to that question tonight.”

Rich Man actually even looks genuinely _aroused_ at this whilst his tongue darts out to swipe over his lips, Louis surprised he isn’t sporting a big one in his pants right about now.“Oh, really?”

“I said _might_ ,” Louis’ emphasizing. 

“So you’d be open to like…” the guy starts, clearly trying to contain himself with the words.“Letting people watch.”

“Uh—“

“It’s something we could be open to for the right person,” Louis’ talking over Harry.Does the boy not understand that they have to keep their answers open to possibility?This man is practically an ATM machine right now.

The guy is stepping forth, much more in their personal space right now as he traces fingers through Louis’ hair, his other hand coming to toy with the material of Harry’s shirt at his waist.

“Tonight should be fun, then,” he’s softly letting out, practically close enough for Louis to feel the strangely cold air of his breath.“I live in one of the lofts up above.What do you say we take this back to mine?”

Louis’ honestly loose and hazy enough not to second guess anything, the number one thing on his mind right now being that he’s going to suck as much money out of this man as he can.

“Another three hundred.”

“It hasn’t even been an hour yet?”

“You’re a stranger, so it’s extra to get us back to your place.Regular clients don’t get the entry fee,” Louis’ saying simply, never having known he’d be _this_ good at improv, even though he’s not even sure if he’s making sense.

The man doesn’t argue with that anyway, only claiming that he hopes to become a regular after tonight as he slides Louis the cash, and they’re prepared to be on their way.The guy excuses himself to the “washroom” first before they’re set to leave, giving Louis and Harry a moment to themselves.Louis spends that time counting the money, and _Harry_ spends that time setting his huge frantic eyes on the boy.

“Louis.We are not going to _fuck_ _each other_ in front of a random man,” the boy’s saying bluntly, appearing to be sobered up just by his own stress.

“Of course we’re not,” Louis’ replying, counting off the money.“We’re just gonna let him _think_ it might happen.”

Harry doesn’t say anything for long enough for Louis to bring his eyes to the boy in front of him, where he’s practically stood between his legs while Harry sits upon the high chair by the bar.He doesn’t look as bug eyed and incredulous, but more silently unamused, probably not knowing how to come up with a counterargument.

“Harry,” Louis begins, his voice careful.“I’m just trying to milk as much money off of this guy as I can.Do you _see_ this?He’s literally throwing it at us!And isn’t that why we came here?”

“I _guess._ Somewhat, but…it’s kinda weird that he lives here, and,” Harry begins, brows furrowing with it.“…he’s kind of creepy.”

“And _rich_ too,” Louis’ adding, brows wiggling as he spots the guy in the distance making his smooth approach, one hand always in his pocket as he’s prepared to start them off on their journey up to his loft.

So that’s exactly where they work on going, the guy making all types of commentary on how nice the venue is, and how he never finds “classy” guys like Louis and Harry who are down for a fun time, and how he longs for companionship since his kids never call or something.Louis’ honestly just counting down for when the next hour passes, trying to make a mental note of when the last payment even _was_ as they’re going up in the mirrored, glass-like elevator where everyone’s reflections are clear and shiny.

Once they’re venturing down one of the dimly lit hallways and finally witnessing the guy turn a key into one of the lone doors at the very end of it, it’s a pretty normal entrance.

“And this is my humble abode,” he’s saying, his voice echoing with the huge emptiness of it, gesturing forth at the wide, _tall_ area of living once they’ve stepped in.

Louis’ honestly pretty sure he must’ve never known what a loft was, because he’d never imagined they could even look like something in the realm of a penthouse.Like, this place is _grand._ He’d obviously just gotten someone to synchronize and decorate the entire place according to a generically picked retro theme of silver and black, which is seen in the large L-shaped leather couch that’s pushed back against the floor to ceiling windows in the living room, and the lights that hang down from the tall ceilings in the dining room and kitchen, and the way every table is perfectly circular and shining in black. 

Even with all the lights off, everything is still comfortably visible since his windows are so wide, the man taking slow steps in leading them towards the middle of this main area as they’re in quiet observation of their surroundings.

Louis' in the midst of faintly poking his finger at the water where he's stood near a skinny fountain thing made out of stones, when the man's voice is cutting into his surroundings and somewhere close behind him and to the right.

“I was hoping that’s where we’d be,” he’s suddenly saying, Louis turning his eyes to look toward the man who has come close to gently tug at one of Louis’ shirt collars, his free hand pointing behind his own shoulder and towards what’s most likely the bedroom. When Louis' eyes are following the path to it, he can see the door to it that's opened, although there are only indiscernible shadows of what’s inside.

Even as Louis’ feeling the subtle hand of Harry coming to hold him at his side, Louis still voices his confident reply, voice low and alluring as well.“That’s only if you’re lucky.”

“I tend to be pretty lucky,” he’s replying, his quietly smug grin moving between Louis and Harry, before he’s taking a step back and rubbing his hands together carefully.“I make a _mean_ Paper Plane Cocktail.Either of you care for one?”

“I’m up for that,” Louis answers, the guy already pointing over his shoulder and backing towards the kitchen platform.He tilts his chin up to look at the boy close next to him, Harry still gently holding him by the waist.“What about you, love?”

“I think I’ve had enough to drink, thanks,” Harry’s replying, Louis already rolling his eyes beforeshying himself away, prepared to follow Rich Man into the kitchen.

He gets stopped pretty instantly however, by a simple tug to the material of his shirt from behind, Harry subtly pulling him back, bringing Louis to raise an eyebrow in question as he turns toward the boy again.

“ _Louis_ ,” Harry’s saying, his voice as quiet as it can be in a noiseless place while he still attempts to speak with concern.“I’m getting all kinds of bad energy about this.”

Louis can’t help the bubbly laughter that falls from his lips.“What, are you some hippie now?” Louis asks jokingly, Harry blinking hard and crossing his arms in front of his chest.“The guy hasn’t even _done_ anything.”

“Yeah, but…” Harry begins, exhaling stressfully as Louis searches his perturbed face.“This is definitely, like… _definitely_ sliding into escort territory.Like, sex work is _real_ and it’s not something you just sort of dip your toe into.There are certain _precautions_ you have to take before just—“

“Okay, Harry,” Louis’ saying, setting a hand against the boy’s neck in order to calm him.“I will not force you to be here, alright?And I’m not saying that with an attitude, or bitterly, or— _none_ of that.If you want to leave, you can wait for me downstairs, and I’ll meet you down there after I’ve wasted as much time as I can.”

There’s a moment, where there’s no type of noise going on in the entirety of this loft besides the clinking of glasses and the pouring of liquids and the light humming sounds coming from Rich Man’s mouth as he prepares the drinks, all the while Louis is giving Harry his earnest eyes, brushing his thumb across the skin of his neck as Harry looks conflicted and upset.

“‘m not leaving…” Harry answers, although with the tone of it, it’d sounded like the sentence wasn’t finished.Like maybe there was a _word_ right at the end of it that he’d decided to leave out right at the last moment.

“Then what are we even arguing about right now?” Louis’ asking, pleased grin pulling at his lips as he takes his hand off the boy’s neck and gestures between them. 

Harry blows air out of his mouth as he works vexed hands through his long locks.“I don't know.”

“Alright.Now lighten up and suck my dick so we can make a cool five hundred,” Louis jokes, stepping back on his feet and laughing over his shoulder when the boy’s muttering a “not funny”.

Louis happily joins Rich Man in his kitchen as the guy’s finishing up this so-called “Paper Plane Cocktail” Louis’ never heard of.He’s more of a regular, hard liquor kind of guy.None of that extra prissy flavorful stuff is necessary for him.

He drinks it regardless after it’s done, bringing the glass up to his lips as he sits on top of the kitchen island, Harry stood by it and leaned on the surface with his elbows, clearly uncooperative with everything.

“Wow, that’s disgusting,” Louis’ saying matter-of-factly after he’s taken it down.He gestures quickly towards the man in order to offer additional words.“ _Not_ because you made it bad, or anything.I’m pretty sure nothing _that_ orange could ever taste good.”

Rich Man is blowing cool chuckles into his chest as he’s stepping toward Louis, Louis still downing some more of the drink anyway, because alcohol is alcohol, and it’s still packing a bit of a strong punch.

As the guy is stepping into Louis’ space, closely offering to prepare him something else that’s probably a bit tastier (it’s called a Sex on the Beach, which is quite a weird name for a drink), his hands are low and caressed behind Louis’ hips, a lot more bold than before.

Louis is happily obliging (after taking three hundred more dollars for the hour of course), just wanting to stall and make the most of this time as Rich Man is scouring his wide huge fridge for the ingredients he needs.

And _that_ one actually tastes really good.Louis’ even offering a sip of it to Harry where the boy’s stood bored by the kitchen island, just coughing occasionally and not having any sort of enthusiasm reach his eyes.

“God, you’ve got a glorious behind,” is what’s being uttered, right when Louis had been half-laid out on the surface while stretching towards Harry to try and tip the glass into his mouth.

And with the drinks Louis’ just had, his only reaction is to set the glass down on the counter and bite back a grin, leaning the side of his face on his hand with his propped elbow as he gives the man his pretty lashes and makes it so his ass still sticks out beautifully with how he’s laid on his side.

“Is that so?”

“Jesus, yes,” the guy’s continuing, his voice lowering a decibel as he’s stepping up, nearly drooling as he looks at the curve of Louis’ ass and not even his face anymore, his hands just hesitant in the air.His words are almost mere breaths when he’s speaking again.“Can I touch?”

And well.Louis honestly never even knew he had a great ass before the last three weeks of his life, so he figures he should make the most of it, shouldn’t be ashamed to strut his assets.So he’s pretty bold in turning over in order to set his palms flat on the counter and get on his knees—and no he doesn’t almost lose his balance because he’s a little drunk.The guy’s counter is just crooked, or something.

He’s pretty candid in leaning back against his heels and letting his ass be on full display for the man, who palms one of his cheeks with a hand against the fabric of his black jeans and has Louis biting back a grin even more.He doesn’t even pay mind to Harry who still leans against the counter and looks disapproving, within about three feet of Louis’ face.

“Beautiful,” the guy’s breathing, both hands to Louis’ ass now as Louis arches into the touch.

“You like that?” Louis’ asking, really just having a lot of fun with this now as he has his cheek nearly rested against the cold surface of the island counter.

“ _Yes.”_ The guy’s fingers are even faintly digging into the waist of his pants now, but not making a move to pull them down.

“Bet you wanna fuck me, huh.Get warm right in there?”

“ _Yes_ but, uh…” the guy’s starting, swallowing loudly as Louis can’t even see his face, although he _can_ feel the hot sensation of his breaths near the small of his back.“Want _him_ to fuck you even more.”

Louis’ lips are parting open with delight as he sparkles his eyes at Harry, who has his eyebrows low and his lips pressed into a line as Louis’ lifting his head.

“Don’t you want that?” Rich Man is asking, voice almost desperate as Louis is lazily turning over so that he’s on his back, giggling up at the boy with his chin up, holding an upside down view of his quietly annoyed face.

“Fuck yeah, I want that,” Louis’ saying, toying with his own collar as he grins up at the boy, whose face is going blank now.Louis’ drawing up his knees as he stays lying down, his legs open to the Rich Man who lingers near his body by the island.Louis brings a hand down in between his legs as he closes his eyes.“Want him to fuck me _so bad.”_

“I think you’ve had a bit much to drink, love,” Harry’s saying, his voice low as though the other guy isn’t even in the room as he ducks his head down more towards Louis.

Louis doesn’t offer him any counterargument, because he really can’t argue with that.All he does is keep his shiny lips curved as he tilts his head back even more to watch Harry and his close face, shuffling his back up just a bit on the island.

“You’re so cute,” Louis’ breathing, reaching up and ghosting a thumb at the boy’s bottom lip.

Harry seems to be at a loss for what he’s supposed to say to that, looking everywhere but Louis for a moment as he bites the inside of his cheek.“Thanks.”

Louis can only stare up at the boy’s green eyes, which are strangely _perfectly_ accentuated by whatever kind of high-end lighting the guy’s got on in this kitchen, before he’s taking a hold of the boy’s chin in his hand and bringing him down for their lips to meet, sloppy and uncoordinated as it’s barely a kiss since Louis’ upside down.

Louis fixes that pretty quickly, however, his drunken eagerness to properly make out with the boy right now taking over as he flips himself once their noses are connected in heat, attaching his lips to the boy’s again once he’s upright and shuffling to his knees in order to be more chest to chest with him.

Louis thinks the boy might’ve breathed his name somewhere in between their clumsy tongues, and their full lips, and their languid wet smacking, but he just presses his fingers deeper into the hair at the boy’s nape as he’s getting properly sat at the edge of the counter with the boy stood between his legs, almost fully forgetting where they are altogether.

There seems to be a pause Harry takes when he’s pressing his forehead into the side of Louis' neck and catching his breath, Louis already beginning to mouth at the side of his jaw as he brushes warm hands up the inside of his shirt.

“No, go on.”

The words had come from neither of them, bringing Louis to turn his head over his shoulder where Rich Man is, in fact, simply watching with one hand strongly braced against the island, the other one just resting against his belt, as though ready at any moment to get his pants down.

Harry’s speaking up first, his fingers coming to slide one of Louis’ hands away from his waist gently.“Um…we’re not—“

“I’ll give you a thousand,” the guy’s adding fiercely, Louis’ eyes actually going wide with it.God, rich people are stupid with their money.“Just wanna see you get each other off.”

Louis’ closing his lips and blowing a breath through his nose, because honestly at this point, with any _other_ person in the world besides Harry, he’d just fucking do it.Because he fucking loves sex anyway, and it’s a _thousand_ dollars.

But Harry’s made it pretty clear how that’s far beyond the realm of anything he’s okay with doing, and as much as Louis loves to push him, _this_ is not one of the times he should continue doing that.

But he’s still not _quite_ ready to call it a night yet.After all, they have about twenty more minutes before they’re reaching another hour.

“I need to use the bathroom,” Louis’ saying, his drunken mind choosing that as his first go-to for wasting time, especially since he _really_ needs to pee.“Those drinks are going through me now.”

“Oh—“ Rich Man starts, looking just a bit thrown since the atmosphere had been pretty heated and suspenseful at the moment.“Of course.Come over, I’ll show you.”

Louis’ moving to slide himself down from the counter, right in front of Harry as the boy steps back and looks unsure about everything as he’s cracking his knuckles.Louis only offers him a nod with far-off eyes, before turning around to follow the man to wherever the heck his bathroom is.

The bathroom the man leads him to ends up being in his bedroom, Louis not really thinking anything of it as his bedroom is quite messy—although it is pretty cool, that the bed sort of swings from the ceiling by these violet, silky pieces of fabric.

And surprise surprise, his bathroom is unnecessarily spacious too, with extra appliances that no one’s ever needed, a walk-in shower with a glass wall, and a jacuzzi separate from the bathtub.After Louis’ done his business and washed his hands, he’s busying himself with trying to see if he can figure out how to work some of those unknown appliances with poking fingers.

When he’s finally letting himself out of the bathroom, mind set on dallying through the guy’s bedroom a bit to suck up more time, he’s only a bit surprised to see Rich Man standing there, an elbow rested by his dresser as he’d seemingly been waiting for Louis to come back out.He’d thought the man would’ve been back in the kitchen, enthusing Harry right now and making him uncomfortable.

“You’re here,” is what Louis decides to say, his steps slowing as he only barely takes notice of the closed bedroom door.

“Just wanted to make sure you could find your way back,” he’s responding, lips pulling up on one side. 

“C’mon, I’m not _that_ …” Louis begins, before his words trail off right along with his eyes, where he sees the record player that sits upon the man’s dresser, just a few inches shy of his elbow.It’s a super antique one that Louis’ been drooling over online for _years_ , just about keeping it to himself as a dream that he would eventually own it one day in order to put use to all the vinyl records he uselessly stocks up on for show. 

“Oh my _god,_ ” Louis’ saying, almost comically awed as he walks up, eyes wondrous.“Is this a Wrensilva?” His voice is hushed as he just hovers his fingers near the wood of it, Rich Man only chuckling once beside him.

“Yes, it is.Do you like it?”

“I literally never thought I would even _see_ one in person,” Louis’ replying.And it’s _just_ on the tip of his tongue, Louis verbally claiming _wow, you’re like, actually rich.Like legit rich._ Louis turns his eyes toward the man beside him, who has slid just a bit more into his space with his elbow upon the surface.“Does it actually play as good as everyone claims?Or is all that just for show—just to say you have one?”

“It plays quite beautifully. Its sound like nothing else,” he’s replying, seeming to be genuinely fond over Louis’ wonder.“Keeps all my Beach Boys records in nice rotation.”

Oh yeah.This guy _is_ quite old, isn’t he.

“You can have it, if you want,” he’s suddenly saying, his words blown right into Louis’ ear, Louis a bit distracted by the cold air of it before he can even process what’s just been said.

When he _does_ process it, he’s turning his dubious expression and low brows towards the man, figuring he can’t be serious and not even knowing what to say.

“If you let me fuck you,” he continues, now properly breathing the words near Louis’ lips, getting his fingers dug into his bare skin inside his pants.

Louis’ lips are parting for just a moment as he collects his clumsy thoughts.“I…”

“C’mon, just because your friend isn’t up for it doesn’t mean _we_ can’t have some fun,” he’s continuing, sliding his hand out of Louis’ pants and towards the bare skin behind his waist, pulling their crotches flush together as he dives into the boy’s neck.

Louis’ first instinct is to press his hands against the man’s shoulders in order to allow himself some separation.“ _I’m_ not up for it either.”

The guy looks genuinely confused as he blinks at Louis and tilts his head, Louis feeling more serious than he’s been since this whole night started.

“But…you said you would,” the guy’s starting, stepping forth again and getting both hands linked behind Louis’ lower waist as their bodies are close again.

“I said I would _consider_ it,” Louis’ firing back, making his voice more stern as he’s sinking his fingers into the guy’s forearms in order to push him away, but.He’s not moving, so there’s that.

“There’s nothing to consider when I’ve already paid you,” is what the guy’s breathing near his neck, Louis actually swallowing with a bit of a tremor as he’s placing his hands behind himself and against the man’s wrists.

“ _Dude_ ,” Louis’ warning, successfully pushing one of the guy’s wrists back and into the air in between them, where it sort of floats there since the guy is actually using some bout of _force_ to push back.

The man’s using this bout of force to push forth and get Louis’ back against the dresser, Louis’ wrist getting secured and pressed right against the wood of it as the man’s purring the words “I can only be teased for so long” before he’s practically devouring Louis’ mouth.

And Louis’ actually stunned right now.Like he doesn’t close his eyes, pretty sure he doesn’t even breathe as his face is being gripped at both sides and his mouth is being pushed open, along with one of the man’s legs being shoved right in between his, more aggressive than he’s been all night.

_This is actually happening right now._

It’s the only thing that Louis can think once his neck is being violently sucked on, the guy working his hands down to the front of Louis’ pants, Louis only trying twice to push his hands away from doing down his zipper, and giving up when the guy goes in for a third time.

He doesn’t even know why he doesn’t think to call out for Harry when his zipper’s being done down and he’s getting a hand shoved inside his pants and upon his briefs.He just really can’t think of anything right now as he’s separating himself from this entire moment.

But it doesn’t seem to matter when Harry’s coming in anyway, the careful opening of the door seeming as though he’d just been trying to check in on things, although his quaint curiosity quickly turns into irate fury.The only thing Louis really remembers is one second, he was tuned back into this _reality_ where the man was now holding him pinned tight at the wrist with a fist, his other hand ripping open the buttons on Louis' shirt, and another second, the man was getting shoved off of Louis by Harry.

And then pushed—or pretty much _ran_ into the ground by Harry as he’s trying to claim that they were just fooling around.He only gets about two words out though, before his mouth is sort of quieted by Harry’s fist, which knocks his head back against the carpet, and is closely followed by another fist.And another.And another.As Harry’s shouting all types of breathless, hysterical profanities at him about how he’s a piece of shit and he’s going to kill him.

“Harry,” Louis’ saying, realizing he’d just been silently watching with parted lips and a hand to his chest for probably an inappropriate amount of time by now.The call of the boy’s name does _nothing_ for Harry however as he’s continuing to sock this old man right in the face, the man blocking it out as best as he can with his forearms, yelping out what sounds like an " _oh heavens",_ and _clearly_ not equipped to have a fair match in this kind of beating.

It’s when Louis’ stepping closer where Harry’s on top of the man and sees that there are these faint red stains, sort of peppered down Harry's fingers (his _ringed_ fingers by the way), and also soiled down the middle of the man’s face, most deep in color and piled at the man’s nose, that Louis’ actions kick into overdrive as he’s surging forth in order to get his arms around the boy’s waist and pull him off.

“Harry, _stop!”_ Louis’ shouting, only half succeeding in pulling him away, although Harry’s now holding on with his hands around the man’s neck, his red-stained knuckles actually turning _pale_ with how tight he squeezes and shakes him out as though trying to rattle the life out of him.“ _HARRY!”_ Louis’ just about begging at this point, finally conjuring up enough magical strength to get his arms locked around the boy’s elbows from behind and pry him off, even while Harry’s crying out that he deserves to die and trying to struggle against being pulled away.

And from what Louis can see past Harry, the guy isn’t moving.And Louis kind of wonders _when_ he’d stopped moving.Stopped fighting back.

But strangely enough, tending to the boy he has in his grasp right now becomes a bit more important, Louis shoving the boy onto the edge of the bed and holding him tightly at his wrists. His fucking shaking _, trembling_ wrists.

“Harry. _Chill out_ ,” Louis’ saying forcefully, standing over the boy and bringing his face close in order to sink the words into him.Harry won’t even look at him right now as he lets out these shuddering breaths, his wrists practically vibrating with the urge to continue what he’d already been doing. As though he hadn't already practically _finished_. 

“Hey,” Louis continues, making his voice much gentler as he moves his hands in order to get his fingers laced between Harry’s at both palms, inching forth for the brief press of his forehead.“Look at me.”

It honestly does not seem like that’s going to happen anytime soon.Louis has literally never seen the boy so far away from here, so far away from _himself—_ or at least, who Louis had _known_ him as.This part of him seems like an entirely new individual.

“Harry,” Louis tries again, their linked hands still in the air in front of them.

Eventually, Harry and his bloodshot eyes are working their way up to Louis, and it appears the blinding rage that’d been firing through his pupils are now washing away, now leaning towards something much more like shame as his breaths are moving in and out at a much more normal rate.

“It’s okay,” Louis whispers, stroking his thumb against one of the boy’s hands. 

He just holds him there for a moment, because whatever nonverbal energies he’s sending out right now are doing the job in helping Harry to calm down, Louis even beginning to feel his vibrations going away as he just keeps reassuring eyes on him and caresses his hands.

He still keeps careful eyes on the boy once he’s letting their hands down, releasing the boy’s fingers and figuring they’ll have to face the music sooner or later.

So he turns to look down where Mr. Rich Man is still laid out on the floor, blood stained against the center of his face, black eye quickly forming, and faint marks against his neck where Harry had wrung him out like a rag.

Louis sighs at himself as he steps over to the man, before crouching down and taking in his closed eyes.Suspense and almost crippling fear of the unknown is pretty much all he can feel right now as he’s mustering up the courage to look at the man’s chest, his life from this point on either about to continue to be somewhat okay, or to be spent in jail.

“He’s _fucking_ breathing,” Louis’ saying, flabbergasted as he watches the man’s chest rise and fall.Then he’s moving to press his ear against the man’s chest, not even knowing he’d ever be so _happy_ to hear a fucking heartbeat.“We’ve got a heart beat too!”And _yes_ , there’s some cheerfulness to his tone as he flashes a thumb up and grins over his shoulder at Harry, who could _not_ be any more serious and unsmiling at the moment.

“Well,” Louis starts, rising back up to his feet and wiping his hands off on each other.He continues speaking, sort of in an attempt to lighten the mood, because everything is feeling really dark right now, and it’s kind of a drag.“Congrats to me, finding out the one person I’ve been spending all my time with _isn’t_ a murderer—” 

“CAN WE JUST FUCKING LEAVE NOW!” Harry’s voice is thundering, Louis’ heart and shoulders jumping with it. 

He figures Harry’s _far_ from even being in the _vicinity_ of wanting to lighten the mood, then.

Louis doesn’t even say anything, as though his mouth had immediately sealed itself shut on its own out of reflex. 

Louis’ swallowing a bit clumsily as he’s pointing towards the bathroom.“Okay, I um…” he begins, his voice more on the timid side.“I-I left my phone in the bathroom, so—“

“I’m going down,” Harry responds without hesitation, shoving himself off of the bed and stalking towards the door to the bedroom with heavy feet, Louis having watched his journey with eyes that didn’t blink.

Louis had been lying about his phone being in the bathroom. He'd just thought maybe he'd get a moment to find any last minute stuff in there that he could get his hands on—maybe a watch, or a high-priced cologne to resell, or a stash—but now that Harry's gone and left the entire room, Louis' suddenly met with a much more compelling opportunity to dig in the guy's pockets. Which he does, nearly tripping over his own feet as he rushes to dig the wallet out from his pocket, needing to be quick because of the completely unpredictable Wreck-It-Ralph he has out there, just on the verge of leaving him.

He only takes five hundred dollars—no, seven hundred—no, a _thousand—_ no, _everything_ in his wallet _._ Because after all, this guy was about to fucking rape him, which makes him the lowest of the low.

After Louis’ got the cash stuffed in his pockets, he’s getting out of the bedroom and walking through the depressing loft toward the wide open front door, closing it behind himself and finding Harry further down the hallway, pressing the button to the elevator repeatedly as it seems to be taking too long to open.

Louis takes the long walk over to him as he's buttoning back up his own widely open shirt, just really hating the tension that’s accumulating right now.It _doesn’t_ have to be like this—Louis literally _hates_ when it’s like this.

“Harry,” Louis’ saying, using that same tender, caring tone from earlier as he steps up next to him, trying to get a lulling hand placed upon the boy’s wrist as the boy is just keeping a hard finger on the button, probably on the verge of malfunctioning the damn thing.Louis quickly gets a harsh shooing away of his wrist as he finally lets go of the button, Harry’s brows low and his eyes defiant to looking at Louis.

Louis switches demeanor as he takes in a breath, because Harry is being a bit over the top right now.

“You know what?” Louis starts, before pointing a finger at the boy.“You better fix that attitude mister, because I’m not having it.If this tantrum of yours follows us into the elevator, then you can just stay at your own apartment tonight.”

Louis crosses his arms and presses himself by the wall as he fixes his unfriendly gaze on the boy, Harry still not meeting his eyes and impressively stone faced.

When the elevator opens and they’re stepping inside, there’s a part of Louis that’s pretty sure Harry will comply with throwing his tantrum away like Louis asked.Since the boy usually goes along with what Louis tells him to do.

But no.The boy actually stands on the far opposite end of the elevator from Louis, eyes down at his shoes, brows furrowed seriously and mouth unmoving, even as Louis’ looking at him disbelievingly, trying to figure out what’s gotten into him.

Silent treatment, it has to be.But why? _Louis_ was the one getting sexually assaulted here.

Regardless, Louis lets it go once they’re downstairs and having to walk through the venue of scattered flashy people in order to eventually reach outside again, Harry not saying a word, nor cracking any other facial expression besides rigid vexation.

Louis just puts up with it on the walk to the parking lot towards Louis’ car, Louis actually having no concept of time right now as the stars stare down at them, more than Harry has stared at Louis in what feels like forever.

Louis takes the initiative in taking careful steps toward the boy, just rounding the truck after he’d been about to get himself into the driver’s door, and instead now approaching Harry where the boy is stood in front of the passenger door, waiting for it to be unlocked.

“Harry.”His voice is endlessly quiet, his own eyes probably even sleepy as well as he’s to the side of the boy, Harry completely not faced to him.“You’re, um…” Louis begins, sniffling once as he looks down at his shoes, before sucking it up and bringing his eyes back up.“You’re still gonna sleep with me tonight, right?”

Harry doesn’t say anything, his gaze seeming to be more focused on the window of the car and looking inside of it with fiercely unmoving eyes, bringing Louis to sigh and shuffle on his feet.

“Or, like…” Louis continues.“If you want me to take you back to yours, I can…”He tilts his head at the boy, just barely trying to scoop up some eye contact and huffing with closed eyes when he’s not achieving that.“…I just—what did I do.I’m not sure what I did that has you like this…I’d love if you would give me, like. _Anything_ to go on here.”

Louis just studies the boy’s profile, almost entirely sure that if he reached out and touched his face right now it’d be made out of rock.He’s also pretty sure the boy’s not going to answer him, Louis on the verge of just giving up and moving to enter the car.

“I can sleep with you,” the boy’s finally mumbling, words directed down to the passenger seat window and significantly a step quieter from the last time he’d spoke.

And that’s at least…good.It’s good enough, Louis decides once he nods and leaves the boy to enter the car himself, already knowing that nothing else will be said between them.

And Louis just complies with it, complies with the pin drop silence on the drive back, complies with the silence on the way up to Louis’ apartment, complies with the fact that no words are being spoken as they’re changing into different clothes to sleep in, Harry by now having enough clothes just laying around Louis’ bedroom that he’s left here that he doesn’t have to borrow any of Louis’ to squeeze into.He complies with it when they’re brushing their teeth in the bathroom, Louis figuring there’s no use in trying anymore.Talking is simply just not going to happen with Harry tonight, and that’s fine.

Except when they’re in bed, and Harry makes himself comfortable on the extreme other side of the bed from Louis, rather than on top of him in the middle, as per usual. _That’s_ when it’s not fine.

Louis had just been blinking in the dark, gaze fixated upon the dark outline of Harry’s back since the boy’s on his side, blanket plush and up around his shoulders.Louis doesn’t even know for how long he’d watched, just observing the rise and fall of his body, the way he breathed, how quiet everything was.He knows the boy isn’t sleeping, either.

Louis eventually makes the decision to maneuver himself upon the bed, traveling closer to the boy with the method of flopping onto his stomach, and then flopping onto his back, and then onto his stomach, and then onto his back again as he’s properly _more_ than within the boy’s space, taking a gentle hand to his shoulder in order to get the boy on his back so that Louis can more properly see him.Surprisingly, Harry lets it happen, although it’s with a huff once he’s on his back, Louis setting an elbow up on his shoulder and toying with his own lips as he’s significantly in his space, hooking one of his ankles around Harry’s.

He inches in and just tries to get the breathed words right into the boy’s ear like a secret.

“Harry,” Louis starts, closely observant of the boy’s profile as Harry just stares up at the ceiling, although his face is a lot less hardened right now.“What’s wrong?”

Harry’s breathing in carefully through his nose, Louis just patient and blinking.And then finally, the boy’s head is turning in order for their eyes to meet, the breath Louis lets out resembling one of alleviation as he tries not to grin.

They lay there for a moment, just looking into each other’s eyes, their heads laid against the pillows, Louis’ lips pressed closed patiently, and Harry’s lips just barely parting.

And then the boy’s inching in, just scooting a smidge and getting his nose and lips buried near the crook of Louis’ neck and within the pillow, hiding himself in there comfortably as Louis accommodates him and wraps his arm around the boy with the elbow he’d been using to lean against his shoulder.He can’t see the boy’s face anymore, but he figures this is okay.

When Harry’s speaking, it’s like he’s telling a secret too, his voice almost even frail whilst it tickles Louis’ neck.

“I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.”

And well. Louis guesses that _was_ a secret.

It definitely felt like one, and lightly stuns Louis like one as he’s blinking at nothing. He also swears his heart has just begun to beat irregularly.

“And I just…” Harry continues, Louis hearing the slight struggle in the boy’s choked throat.“I feel _sick_ at the thought of anything happening to you.That’s why I kind of…lost it. Seeing how _frozen_ you were. I'd never seen that before...on your face.”

Louis’ simply nodding as his fingertips are faintly brushing at Harry’s shoulders, just taking the information in and contemplating how he might respond to it.His lips are parting with the soft breath he’s taking in, although Harry’s gentle words are tickling him some more before he can voice himself.

“Sorry,” Harry continues, exhaling with it, subtly burrowing himself even further.“For…acting like that.”

“Don’t apologize.”

“No, but like—I know that was crazy.And I’ve been better I _promise_ it really _does_ take a lot to get me there now and I _manage_ it—“

Louis’ scooting his head back in order to connect his forehead to the boy’s, gently shushing him and reaching up with his other hand in order to get his fingertips splayed upon the boy’s cheek.

“Harry, I understand.I pushed you,” Louis tells him with a whisper, already continuing to speak when Harry’s starting to shake his head.“ _He_ pushed you. _The situation_ pushed you.”He pulls back a bit just to offer his reassuring nod to the boy, lips just barely twitching upward in order to portray that everything’s alright. 

Louis knew that the boy wasn’t in favor of tonight’s events even before it went to shit.And Louis had kind of taken advantage of the fact that he knew Harry wouldn’t have gone downstairs and left him even if Louis _had_ given him the opportunity to do so.For once Louis should’ve leaned towards Harry’s decisions, instead of the other way around.

Harry’s simmering a bit, his eyes closing tightly again however with that same air of shame he’d worn in the guy’s bedroom, before he’s ducking his head back into his cave of Louis’ neck and shoulder.

Louis just strokes along the side of his face and against his jaw, holding him there caringly and curving his other arm around to envelope the boy and stroke his hair.

Louis’ mouth is opening and saying words kind of on its own, Louis not having ran them through his head yet before he’s just uttering them.

“Me neither.”

He’s pretty certain that the boy will have no idea what he’s talking about, and Louis’ pretty fine with that fact as his hand is brushing through the boy’s hair.He’s not even aware he’s holding his breath until he remembers to breathe.

But he figures maybe the boy does, judging by how Harry fits himself more against him and properly gets both of his arms around his waist, making himself snug whilst Louis’ rubbing a hand down his arm now.

“So like…” Louis starts, just hoping they’re on the same page.“Now that we’ve establishedthat, we shouldn’t have to shy away from it, or—or play cool and pretend not to feel it, or anything.”

Harry’s word is a mere breath against Louis’ skin.“Yeah.”

“And also now we’ll try to be mindful of the fact that we have someone who cares about us.Before we like, go doing stupid, dangerous shit,” Louis continues with halfhearted laughter, Harry inching back, his hair mussing with it and sticking to Louis’ cheek as Louis can see his eyes again. 

“Please,” Harry agrees earnestly, the faint curve to one side of his lips giving Louis an instant sensation of warmth.

Louis reaches out a hand and simply cards it against the boy’s hairline and back, feeling like the quietude of his bedroom paired with the blackness of the nighttime is making him unabashed in just wholeheartedly admiring the boy right now, the way the usual glint in his eyes can even be seen in the dark like this.The way the boy just fucking _cares_.More than Louis’ felt from anybody in a while.

“Do you think we’re gonna go to jail?” Harry asks, his tone innocent as though he’s asking what Louis’ favorite color is.

Louis’ faintly shaking his head, chewing on his lip and taking a moment to think about it.“It’d be pretty hard for him to hunt us down using only our fake names,” Louis replies with a shrug.“Plus, I have a _pretty good_ case for arguing self defense.”

“That does make sense,” Harry’s replying, although his face is falling with it a bit, as though just the memory of it glooms him out, which is understandable.

“ _Harryyy_ ,” Louis hums, pretty much making a melody out of his name as he’s pressing himself forward and ghosting his forehead against the boy’s, feeling the tufts of his hair.He runs one of his hands down the boy’s chest.

“Hm?” Harry’s asking, an air of shyness to his smaller voice as Louis trains lidded eyes on his lips.

“Kiss me.”

After a moment of Harry holding slight hesitation, and Louis openly gazing down, their lips meet in the middle to pucker over each other quite gently after Harry's leaning in, Louis chasing it faintly and having to press into the boy with it again in order to make sure it doesn’t end with one peck.When he’s pushing in and opening his mouth a bit more for another kiss, he feels Harry’s hand coming up behind his head to caress him against his hair, Louis almost hovered over him as he moves his head sideways into the kiss, just wanting to experience the boy’s lips again, completely wipe away the memory of the rough, belligerent ones that he’d had on him about two hours ago.

He’s getting a hand underneath Harry’s shirt and just sliding his curious palm up the boy’s bare torso, feeling the heat of his smooth skin and letting his tongue tease at the boy’s open mouth as they take their time with each lip lock.

When Louis’ reaching down and just taking his thorough time to slide his palm down into the boy’s briefs slowly just to gauge Harry’s reaction as he watches his lips closely, it’s something he doesn’t even contemplate, no regard for how they’ve never even been in this territory and now he’s got his hand ghosting the boy’s bare dick.

“This okay?” Louis’ breathing, already thumbing at the head of it.

Harry only gets out half a nod with his closed eyes before Louis’ surging in for his lips again, taking the boy’s deeply in between his and working a slow, purposeful hand down his length, both for wanting to pleasure the boy and also out of curiosity about the size, which.Impressive.

So Louis works him up and down right there at the edge of the bed, not even climbing towards any sort of speed or vigor as he’s entranced by the subtle way it’s building within Harry, Harry just barely cooperating with their kisses now and probably wanting to _beg_ for Louis to go faster as he arches into it and takes in full breaths and sometimes fists a hand in Louis’ shirt at his sleeve.

And at one point the boy is so hard Louis’ pretty sure it must be painful.Because he can literally _feel_ it as he’s going at a bit more of a mid-level pace, pressing his lips against the side of the boy’s neck and just working up and down his shaft as the boy is doing nothing but letting out these uneven, stuttered breaths and occasionally tugging at Louis’ hair.

And then Louis gets an idea.Just because usually when he’s horny anything goes, and all caution goes out the window.

“Can I try, like…” Louis starts, alternating between looking at the boy’s blissfully closed eyes and head that rests in the pillow, and down in the shadows of the blankets where he’s stroking him, Harry’s faintly twitching hips struggling to stay down.“Can I go down on you?”

One of Harry’s wrists is coming up to his forehead as his chest is still rising and lowering with his vigorous breaths, especially since Louis has sped up his hand some more.

“If you want,” he’s breathing out, even though the outrageous amount of weak, choked down desire in his words makes it very clear that he’s a _lot_ more enthusiastic than that.

So Louis does his best—because he’s gotten it done to him enough times before so it can’t be _that_ hard, trying to figure out how to do it, and soon he’s underneath the blankets and getting his mouth around Harry at the tip, his fist still working the bottom as he sucks him gently.

Louis thinks it’s going great—well, from where he can see slivers of Harry’s wrinkled brows and parted lips as he draws his knees up, it’s going better than that, but Louis definitely accidentally grazes the boy with his teeth once or twice, always immediately apologizing when Harry shudders or winces at it.Soon enough, however, he’s properly moving his head up and down with the wet mouth he has around the boy.The choked, graphic sounds of it, paired with Harry’s whispered curses, are only making Louis grow in his own pants even more.

Louis’ maneuvered his arms in order to curve up under the boy’s legs and grip him at his thighs in order to keep him close, Louis taking the boy down as low as he can manage when he goes in, and also working his tongue with whatever skill he can conjure up right now when he’s licking down the boy’s shaft.

“Oh my _god_ , Louis,” the boy’s breathing at some point, Louis opening his eyes and sputtering just a bit in order to absorb Harry’s reaction, the boy completely blissed out as he’s sinking his teeth into his bottom lip and budging against where Louis has a grip on his thighs.

He eventually comes right in Louis’ mouth, right as he’s picking his back up off of the bed and curving in a bit, not even realizing how tightly he grips onto the strands at the top of Louis’ head as he shoots into his mouth and chokes down a whine.Louis takes it down, pretty much only because he hadn’t really thought about the fact that Harry was going to come in his mouth _until_ the boy was already coming in his mouth, and he’s decided not to be a wuss now and stick it out, even through his coughs and the way he has to pull his wet lips off of him.

Not much is said between them after that, Harry’s head fallen back as he’s blissed out amongst the pillows with closed eyes and heavy breaths. Louis doesn't think there's anything that needs to be said, since doing _that_ was sort of his own way of speaking. It's just what the boy deserved, in Louis' opinion.

So without another word, Louis simply floats back up to him and gets arms wrapped around his waist, making himself comfortable and giving into sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

“The boyfriend’s not joining you today?” Niall’s asking, smirking at Louis in that same burgundy and yellow uniform shirt as Louis is pulling a seat out.

“ _Don’t_ ,” Louis tells him with a finger pointed, before he lets himself fall back into the seat to slump. “Just get me some food, okay?”

“Let me get this straight, I walk in on you almost balls deep in the guy, you’re with him _everyday_ , and you’re _still_ going to deny that there's anything going on?”

“Listen, Horan,” Louis starts, sitting up and joining his hands together upon the surface of the table.“Think of Harry as…” he begins, pursing his lips and motioning uselessly with his hands.“…an _idea_ , to you.He doesn’t exist as far as you’re concerned, alright?”

Even though Louis had just demanded understanding from the boy, Niall isn’t giving him that as he’s blank faced and blinking, stood just a foot shy of the table where he’s got a notepad for orders in his hand and his hat is pushing down his hair unflatteringly.

“And he’s doing a thing with Zayn and Liam,” Louis finally says, rolling his eyes and shifting in his seat.“Some crystal and herb flea market, or something.Because apparently that’s important to Zayn.Now get me some free food, will you?”

The unreadable expression on Niall’s face is almost irritating to Louis now, the blond boy even taking a step forth and setting a cautious hand against the chair that sits across from Louis.

“You know, like…” he begins, voice quiet and eyes way too sincere, which brings Louis to keep his eyes down to the small bottle of ketchup in the middle of the table.“If you wanna talk about it.We can.”

“What did I _just_ say?” Louis’ snapping, his exhausted eyes coming up to the boy.

“Alright, got it,” Niall’s replying as he’s stepping back on his feet and shaking his head out, before he’s confirming with Louis that he’ll be getting his usual go-to bacon burger and curly fries meal, and everything seems to be kicked back into normalcy.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

“No, try again,” Louis says, his voice comically monotonous as he leans an elbow down against the table.

And he didn’t even have to tell the kid really. Another five dollar bill is already being slapped on the table within the booth, right in front of Harry where the boy stands behind it next to Louis. Although Harry's offering _his_ form of blind encouragement in a much more enthusiastic manner.

Harry’s handing the boy three rubber balls once again, uselessly repeating to him that all he has to do is knock over the different stuffed animals in order to be eligible for one of the prizes, which include about three light up yo-yos, a purple bean bag chair they’d picked up at some garage sale for ten dollars, an alright selection of sour candy, about two mini water guns, and a giant stuffed teddy bear that Louis had to force Harry to bring (the loser _owned_ it, from a past Valentine’s Day where his mother got it for him, apparently)—all of these items are just for show of course.

There are three small stuffed animals of the giraffe, bunny, and cat persuasion, and they all sit on three separate posts nearest to the back “wall” of this carnival booth. This creates the question of how they were even able to _acquire_ this carnival booth, and the answer to _that_ , is that this is the result of finding a selection of the cheapest booth rentals to order online, which explains why theirs is shitty and wobbly and an eyesore of striped red and white.It took them about fifteen minutes to put it up themselves, and all throughout the process, they'd fully utilized their mastered art of wearing that _we belong here and have permission_ sort of confidence, that always tends to allow them to get away with things, only receive polite nods from workers within the booths on both sides of them. And after that, the willing players just started walking up, all making an attempt to knock any of the animals down with the balls for a price of five dollars.The rules are simple—if they knock _any_ of them down, they get _whatever_ , and _how_ much ever they want from the set of prizes.

Of course, it’s impossible to knock anything down since they’ve glued the stuffed animals to their posts, but that’s something for only Louis and Harry to know.And Liam and Zayn and Niall who are here enjoying the local city carnival-slash-fair festivities tonight, Niall with a date of his he’d brought along (who’s honestly an on-and-off flame that the boy needs to let go), Liam with the girlfriend he apparently has, and Zayn with one of his hippie friends, or something.Louis was only slightly thrown that Liam and Zayn didn’t have a thing, but whatever.It was probably just his subconscious assumption because they treat Harry like they’re his dads.

All Louis cares about right now is getting away with this booth that they have absolutely no permission to be running right now, for as long as they can make money out of it before they get caught.As the night’s black sky is falling upon everything right now however, and the rush of kids and families and couples is getting even deeper, and all the colorful lights in the air as a result of the fun rides and the different attractions are growing, Louis’ not sure if they’re _ever_ going to get caught.The fact that they haven’t is starting to make this actually _drag_ a bit.But maybe that’s because Louis’ high right now after having ate a special brownie, and would rather be doing anything other than telling kid after kid after teenage girl after twin siblings to try again.

“This game is _shit_!” is the exclamation that gets Louis out of his trance where he’d been sinking into his hands with his chin, elbows upon the table he’d been slumped against.He’s blinking towards the little boy who’s just used the last of his three balls and hasn’t knocked anything down.

“Hey. _Language,”_ Louis says.

“You guys _suck!”_

“Obviously, _you’re_ the one that sucks at aim,” Louis says, standing up slowly with furrowing brows.

“Maybe you just need a little practice,” Harry adds hesitantly, right after he’s scooped up the balls and is now rolling them around in his hands as he steps to stand by Louis again, directing his words to the boy outside of the booth.“No need to get mad at _us_.”

“How about one of _you_ try then?” the kid’s asking, hands against the unsteady border of the booth.

And wow.This one’s actually a little _smart_.Which is why Louis has to shut him down immediately.

“How about you _beat it_ , kid,” Louis fires back, already motioning for the little girl standing behind him in line and barely feeling the silent hand of Harry's at his arm, the boy just sort of making sure he doesn't start using curse words on the children.“You have to be a _good sport_ to win our game.”

The kid simply waves them off with a sassy smack of his teeth, probably another muttered curse word, and walks off to go find something he can actually win, most likely.Or to go rejoin his parents who never taught him how to talk politely.

And the girl with the frilly dress is walking right up, kindly exchanging five dollars with three rubber balls from Harry, although she looks just a bit shaken up following that hostile interaction she’d just had to witness.Nonetheless, she’s stepping over to prepare to take aim, Harry sounding like a robot now as he explains how it goes all over again.

When he’s done with that, his tone is a lot less mechanically formal once he steps back close to Louis.

“Louis, I’m tired,” Harry’s saying, walking into Louis’ space and pressing his lips and words into Louis’ left shoulder as he slumps into him.“And hungry.I want one of those huge turkey legs they always sell at these."

Just the sound of it has Louis thinking about how _great_ that would hit the spot right now, pretty sure his mouth is producing more saliva because of it as he remains high and overstimulated to every festive sound and pop song going on in the atmosphere around him, as well as the echo of the girl huffing after she throws her first ball.

“Turkey leg.That sounds so good,” Louis says, not even remembering he’s responding to Harry and more just talking to himself.

“So I can take a break and go get one?” Harry’s asking, picking his head up and pointing over his shoulder.

Louis’ blinking to life just a bit as he meets eyes with Harry.“Wha— _no._ I can’t run this booth alone.I’m _way_ too high to function right now.”

Harry scoffs with hardened brows, Louis holding back a giggle with his closed lips even though he has no idea what he wants to laugh at.

“You don’t get to just be high by choice and then pull that card,” Harry’s telling him, before patting a hand twice against the boy’s shoulder.“I’m gonna go take a break.” He doesn't really wait around for any approval before moving to leave.

“Wait, Harry—um,” Louis begins, now turning towards the line of about three people behind the girl who’s just thrown her last ball.“We’re gonna go on a _really_ quick break, alright?Hold onto your fives.”

Harry’s already exited the booth through the back when Louis’ putting up the flimsy CLOSED tented sign on the table, offering just one more dumb grin to the people irritated and blinking at him in line before he turns to follow the boy out.

Louis’ so nicely hazy and in his elevated element that all he _can_ do is float behind Harry and let the boy lead them to where the turkey legs must be, even though Louis’ changing his mind at the last moment when he’s in line with the boy and getting a funnel cake and a footlong hotdog that Harry keeps insisting he won’t finish. 

And then, when Louis doesn’t even know it, he’s drifting to sit down at some wooden table near the drop tower ride where people at other tables around are also eating and conversing and seeming to catch their breath.Liam, his girlfriend, Niall, Niall’s date, Zayn, and Zayn’s guy (Rowland?Or Richard?) all already sat around and enjoying sharing a central plastic plate of warm, soft pretzels of the salt and cinnamon variety.

He’s sure he hears a few fuzzy words inquiring about if they’re having fun scamming people, and Louis remembers saying something about how he’d never _claimed_ the stuffed animals wouldn’t be glued to the posts, and Harry cosigns him in agreement because he always does, and Liam’s girlfriend says something that Louis doesn’t remember but everyone laughs at, and Louis’ only thought is how Liam managed to snag someone who looks like an overseas model.

Louis doesn’t know why his state of being high and mostly focused on the splendid feel of different foods being placed against his tongue makes him a little more observant.Maybe it’s because he’s just feeling very separated from it all.Niall’s edible guy has some explaining to do, because this shit is _strong_.He’d honestly already thought it had kicked in before, but it’s still been climbing, and he’s just now becoming aware of that as he feels substantially heavy and stupefied. 

It’s making him become aware of a lot of things, actually, the things almost blinding him, aching his ears.

Louis’ sort of starting to realize that he has know idea how to do…this.And it’s something he’s aware of when Niall’s date Jade is inquiring about Louis’ dating life and if he’s still “seeing” that girl she’d remembered he’d been seeing last time she spoke with him, which was about seven months ago in some other instance where Louis was _also_ high off of his ass at some party thing, although he was probably also drunk too.

And all he finds himself doing is shaking his head as he’s sucking the funnel cake sugar powder off of his thumb, hyperaware of Harry’s faintly bruised knuckles drumming against the surface of the wood where the boy sits next to him, their thighs lightly bumping.

And Jade doesn’t linger on it, instead turning to Niall to give him laughing commentary on something fun that happened that night to see if he remembers, Louis’ mind taking note of the way he has an arm around her, keeping her close enough that she didn’t have to really move in to get the question against his ear.

And then there’s Liam, his girlfriend practically pinned to his side where he has an arm around her waist and her head made to rest in his shoulder, and it’s all just so _couple-y_ and _gooey_ and Louis doesn’t know how to _do_ it. Doesn’t know how to _be this_.

Not in this particular situation. 

He wonders if Harry _wants_ that?

Occasionally Harry’s eyes do flutter his way in between his engagement in the different conversations the rest of them are having, but not with request, or dejection or anything. Just to check if Louis’ there, and if he’s okay, and _yuck_.The boy is really a nuisance.

“Got some of that whiskey on you?” Louis finds himself asking, palm up and arm extended across the surface of the wood towards where Niall sits across from him, the boy just having been laughing at something Zayn had said about the anti-gravity ride.

Niall takes a pause to reach into the inside pocket of his jacket, before a small metallic flask is being tossed at Louis, Louis catching it just in time and getting it twisted open.

“I thought you were already _way_ too high to function,” Harry’s teasing, his voice suddenly very close to Louis’ side as Louis’ getting the liquid down roughly.Harry’d used a teasing drawl to do a bad job at imitating Louis, Louis now wiping his mouth with smiling lips as Harry’s raising his eyebrows.

“I’d exaggerated just a bit,” Louis tells him, handing the flask to Harry who’s holding out a hand for it.

“Then you’re on ball duty when we go back,” Harry’s telling him with one nod, before he’s tipping his chin up to bring the flask to his lips, Louis not even being able to control the way his eyes just stay right in place, zoned out on his lips around the nose, the way his throat bobs with it.

And Harry doesn’t take any notice of it as he’s scrunching his face up with a huff and extending an arm in order to hand the flask back to the boy.

Yeah, they’re probably not that kind of pair anyway.Probably.

When they find themselves back at their booth, Louis’ reached an all new level of irritation when Harry actually _does_ put him on ball duty, and he’s finding himself more drained with every step and crouch he has to take in order to retrieve the thrown balls, and then hand them to another unsuspecting oblivious person.

As the night progresses, and there’s probably about an hour and a half left before the fair’s about to be closed to the masses, the crowds growing more moderate and _bearable_ now, they reach a break in participants when no one comes after a couple of two have just tried and failed at knocking over the stuffed animals.

“Well, Louis Tomlinson, it seems we’ve made enough money for tonight and can still get out of this unscathed,” Harry begins, his voice jokingly posh as he’s stepping up to Louis with hands joined behind his back. “Do you agree?”

“Oh, I very much agree, Harry Styles,” Louis nods, three balls in his right hand and his chin tipped up.“Is it time we dissemble the booth and head home?”

“Yes, indeed, I think that’s very necessary,” Harry replies, blinking prettily.“But first, um,” he begins, pressing a brief clearing of his throat into his fist as he blinks beyond Louis’ head just a bit.“Before we head home, would it be horrible if we took part in some of the carnival games, rode some of the rides, you know, just to give them professional ratings out of ten?”

“That wouldn’t be too horrible at all,” Louis’ replying with a brief raise of his eyebrows, eyes brightening at the sight of Harry’s growing sincere grin and the appearance of his right dimple.“Now come on, Harold, let’s get this booth down and into the back of my truck while we still have our luck.”

So doing that is exactly what ensues, the both of them counting up the money and getting it split between themselves, ripping the stuffed animals off of their places on the posts, packing up the “prizes” into large garbage bags, taking the booth down by its weak, crummy parts and lugging them over towards the parking lot in order to throw them into Louis’ open truck, leaving an empty spot of carnival grass in its wake.

And then they just…enjoy the last hour that the fair has to offer.Louis’ not going to lie, he was kind of hoping that he might get to do that at some point tonight, but he’d just figured they’d never get enough time away from the booth in order to.

But now he’s on his third go of the Crazy Mouse ride (one of his forever favorites), screaming his ass off and feeling that being high with a hint of whiskey is the only way to get the full experience of _any_ fair ride _._ They also ride the drop tower—only after about five minutes of pushing and pulling from Louis since Harry absolutely _hates_ the ride for some reason (the boy _literally_ grips the life out of Louis’ wrist when the thing drops, his skin white and everything), then they do separate bumper cars where they try to knock each other out, and in the few games they participate in—games that are actually _winnable_ —they only get a few items of gummy candy and a tiny portable pink fan out of it. Louis and Harry have found that they are quite horrible at smashing things on time and shooting water at clear targets.

Apparently Louis hadn’t been listening when Harry’d said he’d hated big, large, rollercoasters at some point earlier tonight, which is why it makes sense when Louis has to beg him to get on the _one_ ride of that persuasion that they have here, practically dragging Harry by his shirt sleeve in order to make it happen.And it also makes sense that Harry’s clinging onto him for dear life through the whole exhilarating journey of the ride, gripping his shirt where he can reach, fingers sunk into his thigh other times, hand scrambled to get his fingers tightly right in between Louis’ during one particularly brutal drop, Louis too electrified and unable to breathe that he’d barely noticed.

Right after they get off, Louis’ simply raging about how awesome that was while Harry’s just keeping a hand to his chest and no humor to his face, probably for a much longer and more dramatic time than Louis thinks is necessary.

Eventually, however, the boy is steady enough to be more level-headed again, spotting something of interest in the distance and claiming that he’s just going to run and buy one of the huge blue carnival slushees, and then they can call it a night since that ride was certainly something of a grand finale.

So Louis allows it as he stands off to the side while the boy’s in line, back rested against a lamp post as his bones are feeling just faintly achey at this point.It’s been a long night.

“Louis?”

Louis’ eyes, which had actually even been floating _closed,_ are gently blinking to his right towards this voice, although he instantly recognizes it anyway, which brings him to feel like maybe he’s fallen asleep and is dreaming.

Because his ex-girlfriend is walking right into view, a gyro sandwich partially wrapped in aluminum foil in her right hand that she’s just taken a gnarly bite out of, which explains why she’s laughing behind the forearm that’s over her mouth as she finishes chewing, eyes bright and happy.She’s wearing what a typical going out outfit of hers would consists of (going off of when Louis last knew her), an oversized sweatshirt that she probably thrifted, a jean skirt that stops at her thighs, and cowboy boots that come up to her calves.Tacky-casual, Louis thinks she used to call it.

Louis doesn’t even offer her much more than the loud expression of confusion, but somewhat pleasant surprise on his face as wrinkles form between his brows and he blinks profusely.

“They just let _anyone_ in here, I guess,” she continues.

“You’ve just walked up to me choking on greek food, so you’re not really one to talk,” Louis retorts.

“And you were just falling asleep standing up,” she tells him, blinking boredly even though the jovial grin can be seen peeking through her closed lips.“Now tell me, how _drunk_ or _high_ are you right now, to the point where you can doze off in the middle of chaos like this?”

“First you have to tell _me_ what it is that you’re even _doing_ here,” Louis inquires, standing up straighter from the lamp post, eyes less sleepy and more engaged.“Last time I checked you were living in a completely different city across the universe.”

And that’s when they get into the common back-and-forth of catching up, although Louis as usual has to correct her in the right direction when she does the inevitable thing of leaving out a lot of information that pieces the story together. 

She had moved to New York City for more opportunities regarding her photography ambitions, which Louis already knew, but apparently she’s been back for about a month now, having gotten drained of the “superficial facade everyone paints on” and wanting to be surrounded by “real souls” again.Apparently she’s made some good connections though, and is currently working on trying to build herself from here.

And Louis doesn’t have much to say about himself in terms of catching up, because he’d been at the burger job when she’d left, which was over a year and a half ago, and only left the burger job not too long ago, and not much has really changed. 

Well, of course _besides_ quitting the burger job and derailing his life and living without responsibility or purpose, but he doesn’t think he needs to say all that right now.Especially since this conversation is all just formality anyway.

And then she practically forces him to.

“Oh god, can’t believe you’re _still_ at that burger dump,” she tells him, stepping forth and slapping him on the side of the arm.“At this point you must have a fryer grease fetish, or something.”

“Shut up—no, I quit,” Louis tells her, shooing her arm away.“Like, a little over two months ago.”

“Oh?” she asks, less poking and mean as she looks more genuinely interested, blinking whilst picking at the hanging lettuce of her gyro sandwich.“You should’ve said that.What’s the most _recent_ update on Louis Tomlinson’s life journey, then?”

“Um,” Louis begins, bringing up his shoulders as he thinks on it, not even knowing _why_ he can’t bring himself to come up with something to say right now.It’s just because this is his _ex_ , and he hadn’t been expecting her to just _pop_ _up_ , and—

“Excuse me Louis Tomlinson, is this person bothering you?”

His voice comes in just as mockingly professional as it’d been earlier, Louis already feeling at ease in response to it as he turns his eyes toward Harry, who is stepping forward with one arm politely behind his back and one hand holding his large slushy in a plastic cup, unabashedly blinking his slightly furrowed brows between the girl Louis’ talking to and Louis himself.

“Maybe, Harry,” Louis replies, patting a hand against the boy’s arm and half chuckling as he gestures towards Emma.“This is my ex girlfriend, actually.Emma.”

Harry’s definitely sporting eyebrows that raise for half a second, his curved lips more straightened now as he nods once, stood by Louis and faced to the girl who has been amusedly smiling since Harry’s entrance.

“And you are?” she asks, stepping forth with a hand extended to Harry.

Harry accepts her handshake easily.“I’m his bodyguard.Harry.”

“You’re doing a great job then,” she jokes right back, Harry huffing in laughter just a bit as he releases her hand.“And you’ve actually really come in handy since defending himself physically was never really Louis’ strong suit.”

“Oh my _god_ ,” Louis says, vexed.“That was _high school.”_

“So are you telling me you actually work out, or engage in physical activity, or practice karate _any_ more than you did in high school?” she asks without missing a beat as she tilts her head at him challengingly, her reddish hair cascading over one shoulder.“And don’t lie,” she adds, stepping forth with a pat of the back of her hand against Louis’ stomach.

“See, there’s no more flab there, right?” Louis asks, setting a hand against his own stomach.“I actually dunno how it happened, but apparently I’m doing _something_ right.”

“Maybe it was waiting all those tables,” she adds, tapping her pink polished nail against her chin.“A lot of walking back and forth.”

“Maybe it was.”

“I still can’t believe I’ve run into you,” she says, seeming to smile more into the moment as she holds crinkled eyes with Louis.“We should definitely hang out— _actually_ —“ she adds, an animated snap of her finger that she almost knocks Louis out with as she extends her arm.“There’s this networking event for creatives going on next weekend, kind of a chill Paint & Sip, get to know each other kind of thing.I know lots of awesome, talented people who’re gonna be there.Maybe you could flaunt some of your art?”

And at this, Louis can actually see Harry’s eyes turning to him in his side vision, although Louis keeps his gaze straightforward on a patiently hopeful Emma. 

“Wow, that actually doesn’t sound horrible,” Louis says earnestly, nodding once and rocking on his feet.“Haven’t participated in the art scene in a while.”

“Then it’s time to get you back out there,” she’s saying, bordering on excited as she steps forth and shakes around the material of Louis’ shirt at his chest. 

“Listen, Olive is probably wondering where I’ve gone, but I _will_ text you later about that Paint & Sip, alright?And it’s a chill thing, so your bodyguard can come too,” she’s telling him, flashing a kind look towards Harry and already holding out an arm for Louis to accept with a hug. She's stepping in close and demanding enough with it that Louis doesn’t even get to contemplate denying it for laughs.

So Louis accepts the hug with agreement that he’ll be looking out for the text, and then she’s roughing up Harry’s arm and claiming it was nice to meet him, and then she’s off.

“She’s a character,” Louis says with a sigh, just to pacify the silent, blank eyes Harry’s sporting right now as he’d watched her exit.Then he’s snatching the cup from Harry and bringing his mouth down to the straw, starting on his way in the direction of the parking lot.

And Harry doesn’t add any other commentary on her, instead telling Louis about how some shady guy in the line had tried to sell him some tires, sending them both into fluffy, echoing laughter in their long nighttime trek to Louis’ car.

That is, until very late night the _next day_ , when Harry _is_ providing some form of commentary on her.Or on something somewhat connected to her sudden appearance.

Louis almost hadn’t even known what the boy was talking about once he spoke, since it’s nearing three a.m., and they’ve been in the midst of sitting with ice cream sundae bowls in their laps, watching some mind mushing cartoon about talking bears.

“I didn’t know you did art,” is what the boy had said, the light clank of his spoon stirring in his bowl as Louis had been glossed over at the eyes by cartoons and the nothingness of being up this late at night.

Louis only barely acknowledges him out of the corner of his eye with a nod as he stuffs his mouth, his mind eventually catching up to it. 

“Oh yeah,” he begins, swallowing.“I dabble sometimes.It’s just like…one of those things you wanted to do with your life before you realized the world doesn’t operate on dreams.Everyone has one.”

There’s a comfortable silence, or at least it's comfortable on Louis’ part, as he goes back to eating ice cream and halfheartedly watching the cartoon, although he’s a little weary of the hushed volume of it.They’ve both been too lazy to try and get the remote where it rests on the carpet ahead of them after they’d gotten in a wrestle over it when trying to pick a channel.

“Um,” Harry starts, gently laughing, although it doesn’t sound genuine.“I don’t.I don’t have one.”

This is what gets Louis to properly turn his eyes to him just as he’s lapping up the contents of his spoon.“Then _you,_ my friend, have always been ahead of the pack.”

Harry responds in that same light laughter, his spoon more resting in his bowl now as Louis grins at the side of his face.

He shifts to face forward again, sinking himself further back into the couch and starting to yearn for the comfort of his bed.

“Yeah, Emma’s really into photography,” Louis begins with a casual shrug.“Into everything, actually.She sorta lives it up.”

Harry’s seen nodding fully in his peripheral, only briefly sitting forth to set the ice cream that he’s done with down on the table with a reach, before brushing a hand through his hair as he moves to slump in the couch too.

“Why did you guys like…end,” Harry starts, question hesitant, although he still turns his head to meet kind eyes with Louis after he voices it, face comfy against the couch cushion.

“She moved,” Louis replies easily, pursing his lips casually and deciding he’s done with his bowl too as he sets it to the side of him, too lazy to stretch for the table.

“That’s it?”

“Yep.”

“But she’s here.”The boy sounds just gently confused.

“Yeah she moved back, apparently,” Louis replies, crossing his ankle over his left thigh.“I had no idea.”

There’s another light pause, Louis close to letting his eyes fall shut and just being too lazy to go all the way over to his bedroom to crash into his bed.

“Oh,” Harry’s saying, even though it wasn’t really necessary to provide that addition, Louis thinks. 

Louis remains dazedly blinking at the annoyingly quiet, outrageously bright television in front of him, knowing he wants to sleep, but also knowing he might also want something else before that. 

He makes the split second decision when he’s reaching out the left hand of his that’s close in between him and Harry, still facing perfectly forward as he sinks his tickling fingers into the boy’s side, Harry immediately responding with a jerk of his body and huffed laughter as the boy begs for him not to and tries to pry his fingers away.

This only gets Louis more immersed in it as he turns towards the boy with both hands to his sides and happily curved lips, telling him not to fight it as Harry is wholly breathless and struggling to tell Louis to get the fuck off of him with giggling lips.

_“Louis_ ,” the boy’s panting, the word broken through laughter once Louis has one hand up under his armpit and the other right against his stomach, wriggling relentlessly as Harry’s laid on his back against the couch now.

He grants the boy the pause of his moving fingers once he assumes he’s had enough.“Did that wake you up, or are you still sleepy?” Louis purrs lowly, their noses floating near each other as Louis is now just running his hand down the boy’s sides, Harry’s curved lips and heavy breaths lingering.The boy’s hands are braced on Louis’ forearms just in case another attack is coming.

“That depends,” Harry responds, still cooling down from it as he blinks at Louis’ lips and then back at his eyes again.“What are we doing?”

“Ugh, you’re so boring with all your planning,” Louis replies with an eye-roll.“Whoever gets the other off first wins.”

“You’re on—“ is all Harry’s allowed to get out before Louis’ palming a hand to the back of the boy’s head and bringing him right in so their lips can collide, Harry quickly made to sit up as the shuddered exhale of his nose is felt against Louis’ philtrum.Harry’s fingers feel like they’re going double speed as they’re zipping down Louis’ hoodie, although he then has to do undo the impossible knot Louis has tied up at the top of it (Louis does it with the strings when he’s bored).Louis refuses to lose, however, which is what causes him to kick into gear upon realizing how fast the boy’s fingers are moving as their tongues press together somewhere in the middle.

Louis’ popping open the button and doing down the zipper on Harry’s pants in what seems like one second, shoving his hand right in there as he gets properly kneeled in between the boy’s legs, and his other handis coming up to the back of Harry’s head in order to get the boy cemented to his shoulder so he can jerk him off with a relentlessly fast and tight fist. Harry didn't even get a moment to prepare for it as his fingers can only twitch in the air and something is heard choked down in his throat.

“Good boy,” Louis’ purring in response to him successfully giving up, before letting his lips fall to the crook of the Harry’s neck and barely suck the skin. Harry seems almost torn between being completely frozen and writhing against Louis’ vigorous hand working him up and down so fast Louis' elbow almost aches.Louis hears the “ _oh my god_ ” of his frail breaths pressed right into the material of his hoodie, Louis still having a fistful of his hair at the back of his head as he keeps him cemented there.

He just loves getting Harry off.In a way that he’s never really just _loved_ before with anyone, because he doesn’t even _care_ if he gets anything back.Just the way he for a moment has the boy under his grasp, at his mercy—even more so than he already does in regular settings.It’s everything.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> u will be mad for a sec but then it'll be somewhat okay again

“What a _great_ excuse,” Louis’ saying into the phone that’s pressed against his ear.“I don’t _care_ if you don’t have any _ginger clothing_ idiot! Because I’m pretty sure it’s not even a strict attire requirement,” Louis continues, using pointless air quotes before he’s opening up the microwave to his hot pocket.“Now don’t make me come over there, raid your closet, and shove clothes up your ass.”

“Kinky,” is what Emma’s saying, probably only having caught the last part as she’s walking out of Louis’ bedroom, microwave bag of popcorn under her arm as she’s popping pieces into her mouth.

“Harry’s just being a bitch about coming to the art thing we’re about to go to,” Louis’ telling her, Harry on the other line claiming he can hear him while Emma’s pushing herself up to sit on the counter.

“You don’t have to force him to come if he doesn’t want to Louis, Jesus,” she tells him, the sincerity and concern of her tone bringing Louis to remember that great quality of hers; how much she used to hate how pushy Louis is.Louis’ pretty sure it’s because she’s pushy too and can’t handle meeting her match.

But Louis guesses he can’t _really_ justify wanting to drag Harry to this thing against his will, especially since he clearly just doesn’t want to go for _whatever_ reason and is making up bullshit excuses.So he makes the decision for himself even as Harry _is_ continuing on about what classifies as ginger anyway.

“Okay, well it’s fine,” Louis tells him into the phone, Emma shaking popcorn kernels out of her shirt and then sliding herself down from the counter (she’s always been a restless one).“I’ll text you through it, ‘kay?”The question of it is said more quietly even though Emma’s all the way in the living room now, having laid herself across the rug and begun surfing channels with the remote.

“You better,” is how Harry’s responding before the line’s cutting off, Louis only blinking at the ended call as he’s kicking his aimless feet out of the kitchen and towards the living room, deciding to let his hot pocket cool for just a bit.

“So is _anyone_ gonna mention the random, ever-present new friend in your life?” she asks, chin rested in her hand as she’s narrowing her eyes at the television and still channel searching, popcorn bag laid out on the carpet near her and littering the rug with just a few pieces.

“Nope, because he only exists to me, and that’s how it should be,” Louis replies, getting himself down on the carpet and crawling towards the popcorn bag.

“So I’m not allowed to know him, is what I’m hearing?” she asks with a giggle as Louis’ bringing the popcorn bag to his chest and getting comfortably laid on his back, chewing on the pieces which are a little stale.

“You’re exactly right.”

“God, you’re exactly the same Louis,” she begins, although it’s said a bit adoringly as she rolls onto her back, now alongside him and leading him to think she’s actually going to be _nice_.“So selfish, so sarcastic, so _emotionally_ _reclusive_ —“

“ _Hey_ , you’re not supposed to break me down to my bare essentials,” Louis fires at her, half serious as he’s shoving away the poking finger she’d had to his shoulder. 

“ _Someone_ has to,” she tells him with tickled, parted lips and wide eyes as she reaches into the bag he’s holding and pops a single piece of popcorn into her mouth.

“And that _someone_ has to be you?” 

“That’s what I was always good for, wasn’t I?” she asks, now more comfortably on her side as her cheek is pressed against the rug and she’s still holding Louis’ eyes.She lets her gaze not-so-shyly wander down below them, particularly to Louis’ crotch area before she’s blinking her eyes back up to meet his gaze nicely, her volume coming down.“Well, other things too.”

And Louis doesn’t even get to really process the implications before just a grip of his shirt at his chest has Louis rolled over and meeting lips with her, Louis in this instant trying to figure out why he didn’t see this coming. 

Even as he closes his eyes. And lets it happen.And lets it _continue_ to happen for a good amount of seconds, her lip balm tasting faintly of raspberry and making their kisses just a bit sticky.

When their lips are pulling apart, only now is Emma releasing the scrunched hold she had on his shirt and smirking cheekily, speaking lowly in between them.

“I’ll go pick out your clothes for you,” she says through a smile, before patting at his chest and moving to stand up. 

And. 

Louis feels like he’s suspended in the air right now.It’s the only sensation that’s prominent as his head just barely follows her socked feet where she turns the corner to the hall, not even knowing this kind of inward stir could even be _felt_ by him.But he’s definitely feeling it now, everything in him quite unsettled with it.

But he ignores it anyway, getting himself up to his feet and calling after the girl about how there’s a reason she’s just a photographer and not a stylist.If he ends up having to, he’ll deal with it later.Right _now_ he’ll just focus on taking pictures of his art so it’ll come in handy at the event (after pulling it out of an old dusty box deep in the corner of his closet), picking out some ginger clothing for the stupid “suggested attire”, and going out tonight to see if he can scour any opportunities to do art for people he doesn’t care about.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Well, this whole thing is definitely posh.New York City really must’ve done a number on the girl, the way she’d claimed it was just a “chill thing”.

But it’s certainly more on the _comfortable_ and _cool_ side of posh.Miles opposite of that sugar daddy convention, and _eons_ opposite of that conservative wedding reception.

The ginger has actually given everything a sort of warm, calming feel, Louis having settled on a notch collar shirt loosely tucked into baggy jeans since he’s a regular person and hadn’t owned any ginger pants, and casual loafers that he could slide into without problem.

It’s almost made Louis feel like he’s in a completely different universe, being here.Having every person he talks to inquire about what he does creatively, every person Emma introduces him to talk about how talented she’s said he is and how they’d like to see that “art pop style” she’d been talking about.And then when he’s exchanging photos of his art, so many people have so many _great_ things to say, although they often give weird compliments that Louis doesn’t understand ("It's fascinating, the way you manage to reject external reality" and something about his "resplendent absurdism"). 

He’s gotten so many numbers, and emails, and invites already, that Louis is pretty sure he’ll have to sit down and organize the ones he actually wants to take people up on later on.He’s also helped himself to a bit of the main Paint & Sip portion of this thing too, sitting in front of one of the available easels with Emma sat at the one near to him, clad in her ginger utility romper and platform white sneakers that practically _scream_ "Hey I lived in New York". 

He’s being _very_ light on the “sipping” part, though.Because he doesn’t need anymore shockers tonight.

He’s also tried not to think about _that_ all night.It hasn’t happened again, which is a little expected, because Emma’s always been kind of a “I’ll do whatever I want when I feel like it” girl and she’d probably just simply _felt_ like it in that moment.But that really just means that it could still happen later on again.

Louis’ kept himself busy every now and then texting Harry sporadically about stupid shit, like the try-hard decorations, and the obnoxious selection of cheeses, and the oddly high number of people who have made him listen to their ambient instrumental music in order to get feedback on what he thinks, and the champagne that sucks.It’s sort of all in an effort to get the boy to know he isn’t missing anything, even though Louis doesn’t know why he’s doing that.

He actually ends up having to backtrack on pretending the night is lousy when things are wrapping up and Emma’s lingering around with a lot of the friends that she only knows through her _other_ friends in New York, and conversation sparks about how there’s apparently some important guy in town (who has a famous father, is what Louis’ somewhat understanding) who’s holding an event that’s somewhat exclusive (even though all they have to have is a special pin to get in), and it’s being held where he’s bought out Club Diamond for the night, which is exactly the part where Louis can’t hold back in naturally voicing the fact that he’d worked there (much to the huge eyes of Emma).

“You guys should come tonight!” her friend with the purple hair is saying, pushing at Louis’ shoulder and probably already close to drunk.“It’s gonna be fucking _wild!_ These parties are always the _best._ ”

Louis _is_ kind of in a party mood, and it’s obvious Emma is too, since she doesn’t even check in with him before pumping her fists and claiming they’re headed _straight_ there afterward.

But Louis’d really like Harry to be there.He’s an awesome party companion.

Which is why he finds himself calling the boy right after they’ve said their parting words and he and Emma are walking out the double glass doors and into the nighttime, towards where she’d set her car on the curb.

“Harry you have to come,” is what Louis’s saying as soon as the boy answers, and maybe he _had_ drunken just a bit over his limit, because he can’t figure out why he’d started the phone conversation with that vague invite.

“What?”

“We’re gonna go _party!_ Some famous dude’s son bought out Club Diamond for tonight, isn’t that crazy?” Louis’ saying, already speaking over the boy again when he’s asking annoying questions.“Emma’ll pick you up.You’ll pick him up, right?”He directs the question to where she walks next to him, and she nods easily, before skipping forth relaxedly towards her car just a few feet ahead of them.

“Okay, alright, I’ll—“

“Cool, we should be there soon,” Louis’ telling him, before hanging up the phone and hopping right up to the passenger door in order to get in with Emma.

Emma spends most of the ride to Harry’s place blasting the music (she has some Earth, Wind & Fire CD playing) and then shouting over the music about what turns to take and then “when the _fuck_ ” did he work at Club Diamond becomes the topic of conversation.Louis’ quite open in telling her the earnest truth that he worked as a skimpy clothed server alongside Harry, and although she’s just a bit shocked, she eventually makes it known that it’s not _that_ far fetched for his character.

When they’re pulling up in front of Harry’s apartment building and the boy is about five minutes late in _finally_ walking out in what seems like his last minute party attire, which consists of what are definitely pajama pants of the black and yellow plaid variety, a Rolling Stones t-shirt, and a black bandana used as a headband to keep his hair out of his face, Louis is too pumped for partying tonight to scold him for taking his time.

Emma also keeps a storage of tiny liquor bottles in her glove compartment (which is _never_ consumed while she’s driving, she defensively claims, and rather for nights out with her girls) and on the car ride Louis had just _barely_ let go of his self vow not to get too invested in drinking tonight. But only with about half of one of the teeny tiny bottles. Okay, a little over half.

“I couldn’t have gotten just a _little_ more notice?” is what Harry’s complaining with as soon as he’s sitting himself in the backseat, barely even having closed his door before Emma’s already stepping on the gas again.

“Hi _Harry,”_ she says sweetly, Louis wanting to roll his eyes at her as he turns his head over his shoulder to look at the boy, only to find Harry looking mildly annoyed as he tightens the bandana at the back of his head.

“I’ve missed you,” Louis finds himself breathing out, before making the same clumsy and reckless movement of crawling himself into the backseat, Emma telling him not to kick the gear shift and Louis just getting his hands at both sides of the boy’s cheeks.

“Gross,” Harry responds, although Louis knows it’s fondly as the boy dodges his face and tries to shove Louis off of his lap.

“You want another chokehold mister?” Louis asks, his arms now playfully struggling against Harry’s as Harry has been pushed over to have his head back against the window. 

“You can’t just put someone in a chokehold every time they reject your advances,” Harry laughs, Louis feeling accomplished at having succeeded in pulling him out of his agitation so they can have _fun_ tonight for goodness’ sake.

“Oh, wanna bet?” Louis asks, raising his eyebrows and already moving to get an arm around the boy even though Harry fights against it as Louis is just about laid in between his legs.

“I have no idea what’s going on back there, but it sounds really gay, just so you guys know,” Emma’s saying matter-of-factly, although her tone is pretty far from serious.

Louis’ buzzed enough to actually fall to Harry’s chest with laughter at how ironic that is, at the fact that Emma’s offbeat and blunt humor has somehow hit the nail on the head, and he doesn’t even really remember how Harry had reacted, since the tiny bottle of Titos is getting to him in subtle waves. 

All he knows is that pretty quickly, they’re there, and they’re being made to meet up with some of Emma’s friends right outside of the club where everyone gets introduced. They’re given the pins they need in order to get in and the music is already vibrationally felt from where they are outside.There’s a never-ending string of people moving towards the club entrance in their heels and their muscle tees with cut off sleeves and their packs of five.It’s definitely drawn just a slightly different demographic than the usual customers they’d gotten here.

They end up taking ecstasy once Emma’s particularly eccentric friend Lacy is offering it to them, Louis and Emma of course having been instantly up for it—but Harry being up for it too, which is what had Louis making a point to tell the boy _several_ times that he didn’t have to take it if he didn’t want to.But no, the boy actually did want to take it, so at the same time, they’re all just popping ecstasy pills in their mouths with complete strangers, and then headed into the club.

It’s as though this isn’t even the same club that Louis had worked at weeks ago—it’s as though he’s stepping into a different _land_ , and the whole thing’s really just a huge fucking party, with bottles being popped all over the place, some clear, huge inflatable balls bouncing around to slapping hands, free-for-all poles still up on the stage, and a large portion of the tables cleared out in favor of a giant mechanical bull riding station.Louis guesses sometimes it pays, being famous and stuff.

And boy, do these people know how to party. Emma’s always been good at knowing the right people, though.

Which is why pretty quickly they’re pulled into an eventful round of body shots, both Harry and him taking a lime and tequila shot off of this girl with bunny ears on, all to the hooting and encouragement of everyone under the thrum of music. Then Louis’ being pushed and fondled with to pull his shirt open and let shots be taken off of him, and he doesn’t really have to be convinced, since he’s not a square.There are many ladies and even one guy who help themselves to licking at his skin—Harry doesn’t, though.By the end of it, Louis actually doesn’t even know where the boy’s gone off to, everything sort of a colorfully lit haze.

But regardless, Louis ends up very much drunk, shouting along to lyrics he barely knows as he pushes through people and tries to find some air, and then somehow he’s on the mechanical bull, riding the thing like a champion with most of his shirt buttons done open. He's simply relishing all the cheers and whistles below him, including Emma’s joyous screams of egging him on.

She rides it right after him naturally, and only ends up staying on for about two seconds with how out of it she is and then demanding she wants to go again.She only lasts _one_ second that time around, much to everyone’s amusement as they laugh and shout her off the stage, Louis blinking around at his surroundings and fully having lost Harry at this point.

And the ecstasy is also kicking in.At this point he’d kind of forgotten he’d taken it. 

But nope, they’d _all_ taken it, and when Emma’s stumbling down from the stage and nearly falling into Louis with a hand to his chest, the way that part of his skin heats up instantaneously is an indicator of it.

“Are you feeling it yet?” she’s asking, gripping his collar and pulling him along behind her as she moves through the crowd.

“Definitely,” Louis’ answering, blinking once with wide eyes just to adjust, since he’s a bit sensitive to the moving lights right now.“I wanna fuck everything.”

“Even me?” she’s asking, finally turning to meet him once they’ve reached a more spaced area of the floor, beckoning him forward with a fist low on his shirt as she sways left and right to the bass heavy rhythmic music.

Oddly enough, even high on _ecstasy_ , Louis doesn’t just give in.Although his hands _do_ come to her hips, just because he wants to _touch_ things right now, and she’s really close.

“Um…” Louis begins, breathing in and out, trying to level himself.

“C’mon, we don’t gotta be all serious,” she’s saying with a voice that’s barely there, eyes focused down on his lips as she’s close enough for her breaths to be felt.“Our window obviously passed on that serious shit.Let’s just have fun.”She says it with a shrug and crookedly grinning dark red lipstick lips, always knowing Louis all too well, always knowing the exact arrangement of words to make him cave, all this talk about not taking things seriously.

“I’m dating Harry,” Louis finds himself saying, even as his forehead is touched to hers and she’d been just about to make her landing.

Her eyebrows quirk up just a bit as she's bringing her head back, although she’s still holding him at his shirt.“Huh?”

“I’m dating Harry,” Louis replies easily, realizing how simple it is to say now that he's finally said it, and moving his hands down and away from her waist.

She gapes for words just a bit as she blinks, letting go of him too and tilting her head with a struggle to grasp it.“Boyfriend?”

Louis runs a hand down the back of his neck as he looks at his shoes.“I don't know, we just…I don't...” Louis replies, deciding he’s not going to do this as he shakes his head out and meets her eyes again.“I’m not talking about this.”

“Why didn’t you _tell_ me you guys fuck?” she asks, still disbelieving, but actually not seeming heartbroken or romantically betrayed at all, which is awesome.

“We actually haven’t really ever done the whole…” Louis begins, making the immature hand motion of thrusting his finger between a circle in his left hand.“And I haven’t really cared, but.Right now I’ve never wanted it more.”And it’s definitely the ecstasy talking as Louis can’t even look at the girl in front of him, just trying to sort of calm the desire within him as he pulls at the hair on the back of his head.“With like, him…of course,” he adds, just in case.

“Then go for it.I _fully_ support it,” she says finally, hands up as she even looks just a bit _delighted_ at this new information.

“I mean, I don’t know.Don’t wanna _spring_ it on him.Also don’t know _how…_ well I guess I _do_ know how it works but—but like, we don’t have like any—lube, or experience, or—“

“Oh honey no, life is short,” she’s saying, already taking Louis’ hand, Louis being pulled along to whatever antics have just taken a hold of her mind.

“ _Emma_ ,” he’s telling her, but the girl’s already stepping up to and whispering to one of her friends she’s found, this one being a guy with spiked hair that makes Louis feel strangely nostalgic as she murmurs things into his ear, the music more than drowning all of it out.

And then pretty soon the guy’s digging through his wallet and pulling out a small sealed packet of—is that fucking _lube?_ Louis can only press his groan into his own shoulder, just wanting to look away, while the guy is handing it to her and she’s still got her fingers right in between his.This is all just way too much. 

Even with his gaze turned, in his side vision she sees that Emma nods at the guy sweetly and gives a press of a kiss into his cheek—this time Louis actually being able to hear him tell her to “have fun with this one”, before she’s turning to step back towards Louis, Louis barely being able to see her in the shadows of the lights that aren’t shining on them as she’s walking him backwards and placing it in his hand.

“Do you know _any_ limits?” Louis asks her.

“If I’m not getting any tonight I at least want _you_ to get some,” she’s saying, stroking at both of his forearms now as Louis is closing his fist around the tiny packet in order to forget about its existence.Louis’ pretty sure her touchy-feelyness is the ecstasy at work too.“Anything else you need?Condoms?I assumed you still always keep those on you.”

“No, Emma, you have done your job in preparing me for a night of sex that probably won’t even happen,” Louis tells her, rolling his eyes and shoving his hands (as well as the lube) into the back pockets of his jeans.

“I just want you to be happy,” she’s telling him, close and personal again as she’s resting her forehead at his collarbone briefly.“You know I love you right?Like I said?Always?”

And yeah, probably the ecstasy talking.Although she _has_ claimed this before.

The only thing Louis can do right now though is shrug her off with a scoff, declaring he’s going to go find Harry and leaving her to only rough up his hair as he’s moving past.

So finding Harry is exactly what he attempts to do, even though everything is so dark in shadowy blue color, except for the times where it’s _not_ , and the moving bright colorful lights are nearly blinding him to death in his muzzy, floating state.He hasn’t even realized how much he’s run his fingers through his own hair as he’s been walking, stumbling around and getting pushed at both shoulders every few seconds.

He wonders how Harry’s hair feels right about now.His strands would probably feel wonderful to touch, a lot more so than when he’s not high on ecstasy.

But apparently someone else is already touching his hair, having beat Louis to it.

And Louis’ discovering that now as he’s coming to a slow stop in his steps just short of the bar counter, where people are crowded and asking for drinks with waving hands, and swinging around their chairs as they laugh with their friends, and laying across the surface for body shots.

And leaning their elbows on the counter, deep within the personal space of some curly brown haired boy who stands with his back leaned against it, and lets said person twirl his strands around his probably callused fingers.

Even in Louis’ clouded state, he can tell that Harry doesn’t look very receptive to this very evident flirting scenario he’s in, more just blinking dazedly and seeming to talk back mechanically to the guy who’s openly admiring him closely, with his tan Lemaire jacket and shiny shoes and jet black hair.

“Hey idiot,” comes Louis’ voice, nice and blatant as he’s walking up.Harry doesn’t jump at it like Louis had expected him to, the boy just blinking languidly in Louis’ direction and simply swinging his heavy head to meet eyes with the boy.“What are you doing?” Louis asks gently, with barely curved lips that couldn’t look any more fake, only keeping his eyes solely on Harry as he steps into their little bubble.

“Um…” the stranger guy begins, just a little awkward as he barely chuckles and looks between them.“We were just—“

“Oh cool, very interesting,” Louis starts, already setting a hand against the guy’s shoulder since he’s now made it mandatory for Louis to acknowledge him. Louis walks him backwards as he speaks, his tone far too polite to invoke any sort of altercation.“You can continue telling your story over here, alright?”

“I didn’t know he—“

“No it’s alright.You weren’t getting lucky tonight and I’m just saving you the wasted time,” Louis’ telling him, finally pressing him back against the bar _far_ from where he and Harry had been stood, before turning to leave and only fluttering a nice little wave at the befuddled guy over his shoulder.

“So that’s…” Louis begins, stepping in front of the boy again and messing with his finger pads as Harry’s leaned with an elbow behind him on the counter, his thumb up to his teeth as he looks particularly high.A lot more chill than his weed high though.“That’s what you do, huh. _That’s_ what you go for?” He gestures in the general direction of the guy as he steps up close to the boy, Harry’s cool lidded gaze doing things to him right now and almost hindering his ability to speak.

“That’s what walks up to me when I’m bored and you’re busy partying it up with Emma,” he says without much attitude, just cool and easy as he shrugs one shoulder.

“I _looked_ for you,” Louis claims, getting a snug arm behind the boy and at the bottom of his waist as he’s coming close to gaze at his parted lips.“Don’t tell me it’s _that_ easy for you to move on and forget about me.”

Harry doesn’t really say anything, eyes down as he’s observant of the way their hips are warm together, Louis securing them that way as he brings his heated palm to now slide up under his t-shirt in order to feel his smooth skin, the contact of it sending tingling sensations through Louis’ fingers.

“You know I’m the only one who gets to touch you,” Louis nearly breathes, not even able to look up from the boy’s lips now.

“I don’t see your name written on my body,” Harry’s saying softly right back, the words now teasing at Louis’ jaw as the boy’s smoothing hands down Louis’ chest like he wants to get into his skin.

Louis’ quirking an eyebrow up as his eyes are falling closed to the faint touch of the boy’s lips against his jaw.“Oh, you want me to brand it on you?”He doesn’t even let the boy answer before diving in for the skin of the boy’s neck where it’s in clear view, almost as though he’s hungry for it as he sucks deep kisses against his skin and even feels the boy moan in reaction to it, his fingers fisting in Louis’ shirt.

He feels Harry’s fingers reach into his hair and pull his head back just enough for their lips to meet, the kiss immediately plummeting into wide mouth fervor as Louis’ tasting the boy’s tongue in a more remarkable way than he ever has. 

He keeps his palm cemented to the boy’s back to keep him close as he slots his leg in between them, Harry whimpering into the kiss and Louis inching in to tenderly suck against his tongue, almost completely forgetting where they are altogether.

Harry’s hands have found their way to Louis’ ass to fully grip over each cheek when the boy’s biting down on Louis’ bottom lip, Louis feeling like he’s glowing in the sky alongside the stars with how phenomenal the boy’s touch feels right about now.

“You’re so beautiful,” Louis’ whispering, Harry’s lips only dropping open in anticipation for their mouths to meet again, his forehead heavy against Louis’ and everything about him drenched in eagerness.

Louis isn’t even thinking much when he’s suddenly scooping the boy up by both thighs in order to have him hoisted up where his back is pressed to the counter, much to the approving hums and cooing and whistling sounds of those near to them that Louis can’t even pay attention to right now as he’s cutting off Harry’s faint gasp with his own lips again.

Harry isn’t subtle in making slow careful grinds against him as he holds Louis’ face at both hands, devours Louis’ mouth with his and is making these obscene moaning sounds vibrating onto his tongue that no one can even _hear_ but Louis.

And the boy’s freaking straining in his pants right now.In his plaid pajama pants and with his legs in the air as he’s shoved up against the bar counter right in the middle of the party, he’s hard, and he’s beckoning Louis with the press of his hips, and Louis can only take so much.

When their lips are pulling apart wetly and Harry’s just faintly sucking a kiss against the corner of his mouth, Louis’ once again aware of the rise in interested murmurs and _woos_ as they seem to have attracted a small scattering of spectators, all to the tune of that ever-present booming music.

At a time where Harry would almost certainly chuckle somewhat nervously or shrug Louis’ touch off for the sake of public decency, the boy doesn’t even stir at it, just keeping his eyes zoned in and hyper focused on Louis as he breathes him in at every inch and corner of his face.

“You wanna fuck me don’t you,” Harry’s saying, and even though it’s a question, it’s not spoken as one.More as a confident and intimate assertion that actually has Louis fighting the urge to salivate.

“Quite a brave assumption,” Louis decides to tease, catching the boy’s lips between his again before Harry’s speaking against his lips.

“It’s a true assumption,” Harry’s replying, his voice low and alluring as he barely grins half of his lips.“You wanna fuck me,” he says it with a teasing rub of his finger down Louis’ open chest.

Louis rolls his eyes, only barely attempting to shy away from the boy’s gaze before Harry’s hand is coming to his cheek and sharply bringing their gazes back together, Louis very close to buckling now.

“You don’t even know anything about that, straight boy,” Louis says against his lips, sort of just challenging him a bit as he starts close unwavering eye contact with him, just to see if the boy is _really_ down or if he’s just being brave due to the MDMA trance.

“I, uh…” Harry begins, a little less self-assured and more coy now as he continues to stroke his finger up and down Louis’ collarbone.“I sort of...prep, and...prepare and stuff, everyday. Hoping you might. Just in case."

The knowledge of this has Louis’ brows knitting in a very real way, because his horny meter has just gotten a lot more serious, hearing that.Knowing the boy has been wanting to fuck just as much as Louis has, but that he hasn’t even mustered up the courage to say anything.Just waiting for Louis to do it.

Which is why after Louis has let the boy down and dragged him along, they’re stumbling into one of the private rooms Louis had remembered down one of the dark hallways from when they used to work here, and _thankfully_ none of them are being utilized for this event.

And it’s just as intimate and secluded when they’re barely even putting effort towards drawing back down the curtains behind them that they had pushed open, instead instantly getting encompassed in the low purple light, Harry giggling as they’re just about falling onto the plush velvet sofa, Louis right on top of Harry as Harry is grasping at his shoulders.

They don’t even grant each other any more breaks on the way there, their heightened states of arousal so impatient about it that they don’t even give each other time to breathe as they lock lips and Louis gets the boy’s pants down just enough. Harry's already reaching down between them for Louis’ zipper, not even having _cared_ about whether Louis has lube, or condoms, or anything of the sort.Thank God Louis has a higher tolerance for things and thus, more of a rational mind.

Before he knows it he’s opening Harry up with two slicked and slippery fingers, Harry clutching at his hair and his shirt with fiercely tight fingers and clearly getting used to the sensation as Louis stays within the crook of his neck.

Louis' pretty convinced Harry’s done this to himself before though (probably as a part of trying to get himself ready for it) when the boy’s panting for another added finger, Louis slipping in his ring finger along with the others and curling them up into the boy.This has Harry starting to just barely writhe against them, feeling exceptionally tight.

“How’s it feel?” Louis’ asking through his breaths against the boy’s neck, Harry almost keeping him from moving with the grip he has on him.

“Everything you do feels amazing,” Harry’s breathing back, his chest rising and pushing against Louis’ as Louis goes at a faster pace.He decides on adding another finger, just to make sure he’s stretched enough before he goes and properly fucks him, Harry’s teeth actually sinking into Louis’ shoulder at this.

Eventually, due to Harry literally _begging_ him to just fuck him already, Louis is inching his way inside of him, after having been rushed through the process of putting the condom on and having Harry make grabby hands at him with overflowing impatience.

Louis tries to keep it steady and slow at first as he’s circling his hips down into the boy inch by inch, coming back out and going in deeper every time but not fully bottomed out, but Harry seems more than ready for all of it, puling in Louis with hands to his shoulders and now kissing him on the mouth again as Louis is bracing himself with an elbow on the armrest

Louis could actually come already, and he’s not even joking.

Funny thing is, Louis has fucked on ecstasy before, and no other time could compare to this.It’s like the way he fits inside Harry is so perfect and deliciously sensational that Louis’ already just about tearing up with it as he’s finally bottoming out, his hips using every bit of willpower he has in order to not pick up the pace right now.

“Can’t believe you’re fucking me,” Harry’s panting through uneven breaths, palms gently coming to Louis’ ass that’s half out of his jeans as he’s simply laying there with his eyes closed and brows pinched, still getting used to having Louis inside of him.

“Can’t— _god_ , believe,” Louis begins, angling just a bit differently now and continuing to slide down into the boy as his jaw is dropped on its own for a bit.“I’m fucking you.”

“Look at me,” Harry’s panting as he’s bunching Louis’ shirt, the couch rocking with them lightly.Louis had been looking down in between them, dumbfounded by how he’s fucking Harry.But he also will, naturally, do anything Harry asks him to in this state, so his glazed eyes are coming up and meeting Harry’s starry ones that are absolutely dazzling right now, half open as his waves of hair are moving right along with him whilst he’s being fucked, some strands stuck with tiny amounts of sweat to where he has the bandana still near his hairline.His words are hardly even discernible the way they’re choked up and in fragments, but Louis understands them in the only way a horny man can.“ _Fucking give it to me.”_

And so Louis does without having to be asked twice, going double the speed as he thrusts himself inside the boy and tries his best to keep his eyes open on Harry’s purple tinted face, even though they occasionally shut every now and then when a curse word is flying out of his mouth.

“ _God_ , you feel so good,” Harry’s whimpering, clutching Louis back down to his shoulder again as he’s finally starting to buck up into him and meet him halfway, leg locked around Louis’ thigh.

Louis feels like he’s crossing dimensions with this shit.Like he and Harry are supposed to be in one body anyway, and this whole thing is them working to get back to that, and the sensation is almost euphoric, Louis’ gasps stuttering out of his mouth as his teeth are roughly grazing the boy’s ear.

He gets an elbow hooked up under one of the boy’s thighs and hiking it up to get at him from a better angle judging by the way the boy’s reacting to different thrusts, and this slightly adjusted position has the boy’s nails scratching down his back as he begs for him to stay right there and not to _ever_ stop.

Louis’ such a champ that he doesn’t even tap out or let himself recover when he’s coming himself, although his hips stutter and shake into it just a bit as his mouth is frozen open.He gets right back into promptly, however, as his main priority becomes watching Harry come, reaching down in between them and not even knowing the boy had been touching himself until Louis’ pushing his hand away and working a fast fist up and down his length while he fucks him.

“ _Yeah_ ,” Harry’s nearly crying, helpless now as Louis’ got a hand gripping around the top of his throat and keeping him down against the couch, another hand fast and blurred around his dick, and hips thrusting into him so vigorously that Harry can barely keep up with meeting him halfway (obviously, effortless multitasking has kind of always been Louis' golden talent in bed). Their eye contact is intense for only a few seconds as Louis’ eyes are definitely watered with overstimulation and Harry’s brows are creased like he wants to cry, but then it’s broken when the boy’s shutting his eyes tight and drawing in a whine.

Louis’ sure he’s never seen a sight more beautiful, the way the boy is swaying against the couch because Louis’ thrusting in and out of him, the way he climbs towards his orgasm and can’t sit himself up because of where Louis has him pinned under his jaw, only leaving him to try to thrust back as much as he can with his hips as he’s moaning what sounds like both curse words and a sprinkle of Louis’ name.

Louis’ meeting him before he can hardly come down from his orgasm, sinking down to power his lips into the boy’s and swallow every pained moan and shivering breath he’s letting out as the boy is twitching underneath him and Louis’ still got a slow hand around his dick.

Harry’s definitely breathing another tender “ _oh my god_ ” in between going in for another kiss again, bringing Louis to sink back down to the couch with him as he takes the boy by the face.They’re both still a little sensitive in their central areas as they shudder at any minuscule contact, but nothing detaches their lips, not the sound of the party still going on at full blast somewhere a hallway away from them, and certainly not the natural tire of their mouths.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> does anyone have any other ideas of wat i could tag this fic with? bc i feel like it's just not reaching anybody but its literally like my fave that ive written lmao i hate feeling like no one's reading :/


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